Articles VIII and VIIII

Hello everybody. Alison got an article out today. Go here to read the story; it's on increased abuse rates among women whose husbands are deployed (Army). You may note that this is not an "environmental" article per se. Well Alison's editor has left the Times, so there is not really an operating Environment desk any more, so she's been shunted off to the Health and Science editor for the rest of the summer. This means a marked increase in story volume, as she'll have several more coming out in the near future!
Also, I appear to have missed one that was released back on the 20th. Go here to read it. This one is about complaints on a high-voltage power line that will be carrying green energy in California.

Updates: Soon.

So I spent last week in the big SV and the weekend in Los Angeles. Lots of driving, many miles on the 'sploder. I'll tell you all about the big weekend at some point in the future. I'm working on decluttering the house, lots of stuff to sell, give away, trade, etc. I worked on books a little bit today. I have a number of books that I have never read, so I have updated my diminishing reading list to add a bunch of things I have owned for a long time, but never bothered getting through (or tried and failed). Had it down to 9 books left, now it's back up to 24. Should be fun.

Aaaaand...done.

It took me just under 2 days to read a 759-page book, which the wife can tell you is absurd. I will hold back everything until KC has finished the book, and anybody else who asks. Weird to think that there won't ever be another one of these books.
I read this thing so fast that I probably missed a lot. Therefore, I am going to reread the whole series front-to-back, all seven, once I'm through my current reading list. So it's back to the old grind.
Coming Friday: Los Angeles!

Outdoors movie watchin'

So last night I got together with Arun, BT, and friend R out at the Albuquerque Civic Plaza downtown for the first of five Civic Cinema events this summer. The City is putting on free movies downtown, which is pretty exciting! Did I mention it's free?
The movie last night was the classic Casablanca starring Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman. I had seen this movie once before, when we had a weeklong substitute teacher in high school. What a great movie, I think I enjoyed it more this time around. There will be four more movies this summer: Lonely are the Brave, Some Like it Hot, The Day the Earth Stood Still, and To Kill a Mockingbird. The last is the only one I've seen. I will be gone next weekend one way or another, but otherwise I hope to get to all of these.
Today I got the book and I am running a desperate campaign to avoid spoilers. I have had it for like 1.5 hours and have not yet opened it! Trying to get through another, fairly long article first.

Does anybody else think this is a terrible idea?

So dubya is going to undergo a colonoscopy tomorrow; I hope it goes well and that he's ok. What I am pretty sure is not going to go well is the temporary promotion of our erstwhile, shotgun-wielding (and not in a rugged, Teddy Roosevelt kind of way) veep, who will be taking over while dubya is under. Now, one thing that I admire about the Republican party is that they have set it up so that there could never be a really serious push to get Bush impeached; they did so by putting somebody in the vice president's office that is so bat shit crazy that he actually believes (and states publicly!) that his office is not part of the executive branch. (Note: this article restores the tiniest bit of my confidence in the current Democrat-run house...but still I am wildly disappointed) What could be worse for American than Bush being president? Bush not being president.
Now, while Dubya is under, he is going to hand over presidential powers to Cheney. How can this not go wrong? This man is the single most power-hungry person in the history of persons, and we're going to suddenly have him in power. With the precedent sent by Bush's use of signing statements, I predict that Cheney will issue some sort of proclamation once he's officially in office that nullifies the section of the Constitution that puts Bush back into office when he is able. A year and a half of Cheney might actually be worse than 6.5 years of Bush. Get ready for the executive branch not being part of the executive branch, a total abolishment of checks and balances, replacement of the Supreme Court justices with various demons and devils (although the Court will no longer have any power), pogroms against the legislative branch, death penalties for any crime except fraud and extortion, the use of gay people as cannon fodder, and sending of atheists into the sea. Just see if it doesn't all happen.
Note: I'm kidding about all of this. Bush had the same procedure done in 2002, and handed power over to Cheney temporarily. Presumably, nothing terrible happened.

Beer + baseball = tonight

Tonight I continued Social Week by going to TWO different activities.
1) Arun and I headed up to Rio Rancho (and met SB there), which is much further away than should be expected, to attend the 2007 IPA Challenge, put on by the New Mexico Brewers' Guild and hosted here at Turtle Mountain Brewing Company taproom. It was an event where you pay $15 admission and get 3-ounce samples of 8 different beers, then when you cast your vote for your favorite you get a commemorative glass filled with that beer. I would have been more excited if I liked IPAs, but it was still fun. I found out just now that my vote went for the Santa Fe Pale Ale produced by the Santa Fe Brewing Company. Of course, it was a blind taste test, so I only know due to the polling results up on the Brewers' Guild website.
2) After the beer challenge, Arun and I headed down to the Isotopes-Royals game, the last of a four-game set. We were super late unfortunately, for which I feel badly. We met BT and friend there when we finally arrived around the 6th inning. To be fair, of course, this game moved pretty fast; when Arun and I went to the game on Monday, it took a whole hour to get through the first two innings. If that'd happened last night, we would have probably arrived in the fourth inning.
The Isotopes ended up winning 5-1, although the Royals loaded the bases and got the tying run to the plate in the top of the ninth before the game ended. It was exciting (what of it we saw), and I'm very glad that I got to a whopping three of the four games in this set. I never get to see my hometown team so it was a nice time, even though the Royals lost three of the four. No more baseball and money-spending for some time to come, hopefully.

Note: In case you're keeping track, the relations now stand at:
0.5*Awesome - 0.5*Stupid = Tonight - Beer
Stupid + 2*Tonight - 2*Beer = Awesome
Beer = Stupid
I am not sure how I feel about this any more.

Media gamut

Last night the Wahi came over for some beer, pizza, and a movie. Pizza from Golden Crown Panaderia across the street. The following beers were consumed:
- Industrial Pale Ale by Electric Brewing Company of Bisbee, AZ
- Dave's Electric by Electric Brewing Company of Bisbee, AZ
- Dirty Guera (Blonde) by Nimbus Brewing Company of Tucson, AZ (two of these were drunk)
- Blue Moon by Coors Brewing of Golden, CO
The movie was entitled Pom Poko, an anime from Studio Ghibli. I have wanted to see this for a long time, and opted to stick it down toward the end of my Netflix queue, so that Alison would not be subjected. Glad I did. The movie was pretty OK, but the huge draw was the role that the Tanukis' testicles play in the movie. I don't know how to explain it; read the wikipedia article above about it. It was not funny enough to be a straight-up comedy, but contained far too much Tanuki ball to be a children's movie in the States.

Also last night I finished Oliver Twist. Despite its length (466 pages), I was able to stay interested and engaged in the story the whole time. My first Dickens book, and I reckon I will read more in the future. Now my current book is Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, which will arrive on my doorstep in two days! I am opting not to start the next book, since I doubt I could get through it in that time, and I don't want to take a break partway through.

Stupid logic

The bored, nerdy, and/or logically-oriented of you may have noticed that you can combine the titles of the last two posts to come up with the following relationships:

Stupid + awesome = 2*tonight
Awesome - stupid = 2*baseball

I think the hidden meanings there are thoroughly accurate.

Baseball + tonight = awesome

Tonight a friend and I attended game 2 of the 4-game Isotopes-ORoyals series. This time we avoided the berm, sitting down in the reserved seats on the first base (visitors' dugout) side. We thought it would be intolerably sunny and hot (it hit 101 in the Burque today), but the seats were shaded by the time we got there. The chairs themselves were hot, but it was OK.
So after the weirdness of last night, I was ready for things to possibly be worse (in relation to my rooting for the visiting team). But things went really smoothly; I still clapped when the Royals did good things, and was silent when the Isotopes did. One guy sitting in the row in front of me turned around at one point and asked if we were Royals fans, and I affirmed that I was, and that I had grown up near Omaha. He was not at all upset. If the circle-running guy from the previous night is reading this, this guy's reaction to me rooting for the Royals was the correct one.
The Isotopes were winning 5-3 going into the 9th inning, when they put two Royals on base. I said to my friend that the go-ahead run was at the plate. This guy then proceeded to crank a home run to left-center, putting the Royals up 6-5. The game would end that way, which was pretty exciting for me. So that's two nights, two one-run games, one going to each team. Exciting series, and I can't be upset with the results, even though Omaha lost the first game.
Now I'm in Socorro. Bleh.

Stupid + baseball = tonight

Tonight the Wahi and I attended the first of a four-game set between the visiting Omaha Royals and the hometown Albuquerque Isotopes. I was pretty excited about this series because I grew up watching the Royals play back when I lived in a suburb of Omaha. The Royals represent a lot to me in terms of my childhood, as does their stadium, Rosenblatt. Even though I don't like the major league Royals, I will always root for Omaha.
The game started at 7:05, so Arun headed over after work and we drove down to the UNM area to eat at Saggios, an Albuquerque pizza institution. It's tasty, as long as you get some extra toppings on your pizza; the plain cheese is a bit cardboardy.
After that we headed to the game and got our seats out on the berm ($5 each, can't beat it). At this time of year, for a standard 7:05 start, the sun is annoying for a little while, but after that it gets just beautiful. Sitting on the grass can wear on you after a few hours, especially if you have a boney butt.
The game started out real slow, with a total of 10 runs scoring in the first two innings; these two innings lasted just a few minutes under an hour. After that the game moved on more quickly, and included a nice, although not stunning sunset.
Now, being a fan of the visiting team, I cheered when the Royals did good things. I would clap when they scored a run, and I raised my voice twice through the 10-inning game to say "Let's go Royals!" I would classify my rooting as wholly unintrusive. And if the Royals had blown out the Isotopes, I would certainly not have rubbed it in, as I have known others to do at games. I try to be fair and nice, things that I know, I know, are not really part of being a sports fan. Apparently my low-level cheering rankled at least one person on the berm.
Toward the end of the game (the bottom of the seventh, to be exact), one of the Isotopes players hit a home run out to left field. This guy sitting near me, who was there with his wife (I presume) and their two young sons (I presume) jumped up, started going crazy with cheering. Nothing too weird there, except that it put them up from 7-5 to 8-5, rather than being, for example, a game-winning home run. However, after that (and this seemed to happen in slow-motion), this guy ran over toward Arun and myself, and actually hustled a circuit around us, ran out from right to left in front of us, then left to right behind us. He then ran back over to his spot with his family (I presume), sat down, and said "Take THAT, Nebraska fans!" I mentioned quietly to Arun that maybe I should disabuse this guy of the idea that they are the Nebraska Royals rather than the Omaha Royals, but decided that would not really accomplish anything. He didn't say anything else to us before or after that throughout the game.
After this point it started sprinkling a little (monsoon season IS upon us), and I must say that it was the single most pleasant and refreshing rain I have ever sat in. So gentle that you don't get wet because the drops that have hit you evaporate away. Cool enough that it is refreshing, but not so cold that it is uncomfortable. Not intense enough to create runoff on the hillside upon which we were sitting. It was so nice, and so beautiful. Of course, this being the Southwest, this gentle rain also caused a mass exodus of a great majority of the 6,700+ people who attended the game.
Now, the Royals scored three runs to tie up the game in the top of the ninth inning to introduce some tension into the contest, and it went into extra innings. Of course, most everybody had left, so not a lot of people got to see the excitement. I was hoping for a home run in extra innings, since nobody else was out there to retrieve it. But alas, no such luck. Instead, the Isotopes won it in the bottom of the 10th by hitting a gapper with a man on 2nd and no outs (or one, I don't remember). The Omaha center fielder did something strange that I don't think I have ever seen in a baseball game before: he didn't bother getting the ball, and instead left it sitting on the warning track where it stopped. No reason to pick it up and throw it in, since the run was in easily.
So as the players all left the field, a fan from a group that had stayed up on the berm decided that, ooh, ball left unprotected, me want. This guy went up to the fence (the right field fence is surely at least 10 feet high, including the chain link fence above the berm), removed his flip-flops, and jumped down into the field. Now, I have seen a number of people enter the field during a baseball game, but never one afterward. This guy jumped down and started running toward the ball. If you've never seen this, you should know that stadium security gets really upset when anybody enters the field of play who is not allowed. So there was a security guard running an intercept course for this guy, and another staffer standing down at the berm fence. The runner got to the ball, picked it up, and started sprinting back toward us. I guess he realized he was in trouble (or maybe he planned this out with his likely-just-as-inebriated friend beforehand), because he skipped climbing the wall to get back to where he had started, and instead chucked the ball up onto the berm, somewhat near us. We didn't at all want to get involved, so we stayed put as the friend and the staffer both ran toward the ball. The friend fell down, and the staffer sort of then slide-tackled the ball, which was a very strange thing to do. The friend recovered the baseball, and the staffer tried to take it back from him, but the friend just kind of ignored him; I guess staffers have no power.
Meanwhile, the first guy had been tackled by security, handcuffed, and turned over to the police. I don't approve of people running onto the field and the encouragement they get from the crowd, but I do like how excited people get when security tackles these guys. And they always pretty much overreact in terms of physicality, but in this case I really, really don't mind. The staffer, still up on the berm, picked up the first guy's flip-flops, and asked us if they belonged to him; I confirmed that they were, indeed, the runner's, my own little "up yours" to that guy. The staffer took them, and I genuinely hope he tossed them in the trash; if you leave something sitting around the stadium, I think it fair to consider it garbage.
Now, this extended family (I assume) was pretty upset, aside from the guy who got the ball, since their kinsman was being hauled off the field in police custody. One lady was throwing up her hands, although to be fair she could have been pissed off at the guy who ran onto the field; somehow I doubt it. Another guy was trying to get into a confrontation with the staffer, basically asking him why it was necessary for security to take down the runner.
I don't like to tell people that they are stupid, because who am I to say? But these folks were stupid. As if it needed to, the team reminds the crowd that they are, in fact, not allowed on the field unless told so. If you break the rules for something as stupid as retrieving a baseball, you deserve to be punished, and I have zero sympathy for you, even if you are hauled to jail. I don't think he was, since I think that I observed the police uncuffing the guy on the field. Doing something that is so likely to end in your being under a pile of law enforcement officers in front of your kids, when you are supposed to be your children's moral educator, is just plain dumb. Next time, think, don't drink.

Best article ever (VI, VII)

Alison had an article out on Sunday that was the centerpiece of the California section. First, I'll point you toward another article that she helped out with, that was released back on the 5th. I never got to posting about it here.
Go here for the text of the article. It talks about the status of endangered species and the efforts of the administration to gut protections. A few choice quotes:

"The Bush administration has added 58 species to the endangered list, 54 of those in response to litigation. . . By comparison, 231 mammals, birds, fish, reptiles, insects and plants were protected by the president's father, George H.W. Bush, during his four years in office."

"Julie A. MacDonald, a deputy assistant secretary of the Interior who oversaw the endangered-species program, resigned last month after the inspector general found that she had ordered scientists to change their findings, and shared internal documents with lobbyists for agricultural and energy interests."

"To date, the Bush administration has taken 15 species off the endangered list — more than any other administration."

America, how is this OK? I am pissed off at you for voting for this man. A-GODDAMN-GAIN. Where is your righteous indignation? Why do so few cry foul when power over the protection of species is given to those who would rather not have those species protected? If you are interested in this issue (you should be), read Bush versus the Environment by Robert S. Devine. Then get angry and do something!

The new article (the aforementioned best article ever) can be found here. The subject is deaths in the All-American Canal, which runs close to and roughly parallel to the U.S.-Mexico border from the Colorado River west into California's Imperial Valley. Basically, what it boils down to is that the Bureau of Reclamation, which operates the canal system delivering water to various sprawling desert metropoli (rather than allowing it to go to the ocean - you may not know that the Colorado River now barely - or doesn't - flows in in Mexico; quote from the Wikipedia article - "The lower course of the river, which forms the border between Baja California and Sonora, is essentially a trickle or a dry stream today due to use of the river as Imperial Valley's irrigation source. Prior to the mid 20th century, the Colorado River Delta provided a rich estuarine marshland that is now essentially desiccated, but nonetheless is an important ecological resource.") doesn't want to bother with making the canal slightly safer. Read it and, if you live in California, write your Congressperson. Rock the Vote, 41.3% of Americans!

Our house

Check it out. I Google-Earthed our house last night. Anybody notice anything strange? I think I might do some exploring.

Sorry about the white borders; I wasn't interested enough to get rid of them.

This is what's it's like when it all comes full circle

I recently wrote about the Bush commuting the prison term of Lewis Libby. Today our erstwhile president gave a press conference, during which he actually called his commutation "a fair and balanced decision". If that's not a shout-out to the administration's favorite "news" service, I don't know what is. See, it all comes full-circle. That is, if you could make a circle by connecting two points.

A fiesta of all-starrish proportions

Tonight I was treated to the 2007 Triple-A All-Star Fiesta here in Albuquerque. I received a free ticket from good friend the Wahi, who received free tickets to said game via his participation in the trombone group Ambush Brass. See below for an action shot.


After they were done, we went into the game complete with smuggled contraband pocket burrito. Oh Baja. Mmmmmmmm. After introductions of all the players we stood for the playing of the anthems of Canada and the U.S. by that other brass ensemble. A group from the local AFB carried out the most incredibly gigantic flag onto the field, and stretched it out for our anthem. See below.


In case you're wondering (you aren't), we had the Canadian anthem because there is still one team in Canada. Also had the flag up next to the berm. You can just see in the picture below the hill in center field at Isotopes Park.


Now, if you're a casual sports fan (I being likely the most rabid sports fan that ever reads this stuff), you may not understand the joy that is Minor League Baseball. I started out going to Omaha Royals games in beautiful Rosenblatt Stadium, also home of the College World Series. Anyway, being a minor league baseball team, the Isotopes have to do all kinds of weird stuff to draw in an audience. One of the things they do in every game, aside from Orbit's dancing, is the Chili Race. Red chili vs. green chili vs. taco. I always cheer for red. Red is behind in the year's race, of course. See below for an action shot from tonight's race.


Now the isotopes apparently thought it would be a good idea to give away terrible noisemakers to the entire crowd. I first knew of these things a few years ago, when the Angels beat the Giants in the world series (2002); they also caused worldwide anguish with their damn rally monkey. See below for a shot of the Wahi with the Bam Bams.


Isotopes park is quite beautiful. Not as nice as Rosenblatt, but this one is hard to beat. We usually try to sit out on the berm in right field, but the view from the lines is quite nice. A great view of the Sandia mountains past the right field fence. See below.


Finally, in case chili races and a specially ambiguous mascot aren't enough for you, they decided that they would bring in BirdZerk, apparently a group that is trying to fill the void left by the Famous Chicken not being there. Rather than being entertaining, they achieve some sort of impressionistic mascotism, which floats in a vague realm between interpretive dance and modern art. Included in the group was a character called "Harry Canary", a take-off on broadcasting personality and noted drunkard Harry Caray. He led us all in the singing of Take Me Out to the Ballgame during the 7th Inning Stretch, then came out and danced. See below for an action shot.


All-in-all, a great time. The Pacific Coast League lost the game 7-5, which is unfortunate because the Isotopes and the O-Royals are both in the PCL. At least the Mud Hens are in the IL and helped with the wind (netting the MVP trophy). Glad I got to go, and special thanks to the Wahi and Ambush Brass for paving the way.
Coming soon: More.

This movie be rated arrrrrr.

Note: Credit where credit is due: the title is from a Simpsons episode.

I have a lot of things to blog about, especially re: my week out of state. I'll start with the fact that, during this week, I finished the book Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson. Not the first book by him that I've read. It was very good, and I got through it quickly. While it is a good book, it loses some points for bringing such things to us as this and this and this and this. This is all very ironic to me, considering how badly the pirates are actually painted in Treasure Island. I cannot for the life of me understand why people popularized pirates.

Now I'm on to Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens. This is, amazingly, my first ever Dickens book, and I am thoroughly enjoying it as well. Hopefully I can get it done in 10 days, when Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows will magically apparate on my doorstep.

By the by, both of these titles are available on Project Gutenberg, a site that posts the text of books that have passed their copyright date. You can read old books like this absolutely free. I'm not sure whether the construction and shipping of the actual books is worse or better than having your computer on long enough to read them, but it's something to look at.

Update, quickly

I'm in the big SV. Maybe I'll blog why, maybe not. I doubt you really care all that much. L.A. was great, maybe I'll blog about what we did, maybe not. Alison has pictures, and I don't; I have internet, and she doesn't. What to do?
I'll leave you with this, which is pretty much the funniest thing I've read recently. Just the last panel.

Note: If you don't know who Yakov Smirnoff is, this will be significantly less funny to you.

The Blind 29

I was going to write about last night's wedding, but was instead thrown into a rage over a bit of news I just heard. Apparently, our fearless leader has really gone out on a limb, and commuted Scooter Libby's jail sentence. I've written about this case before, and was not at all surprised by the news today. Not surprised, but still angered.
The facts:
- Libby still will have to pay a $250,000 fine
- Libby is on probation for 2 years
The surmissions (by NPR, not me):
- Libby's reputation is ruined
- Libby will not be able to work as a lawyer again
The following quote from Bush's statement on the matter:
"The reputation he gained through his years of public service and professional work in the legal community is forever damaged," Bush said. "His wife and young children have also suffered immensely. He will remain on probation. The significant fines imposed by the judge will remain in effect. The consequences of his felony conviction on his former life as a lawyer, public servant and private citizen will be long-lasting."
My reply:
Tough shit. $250,000 would be a lot of money for someone like you or me (assuming you're like me, economically). $250,000 is a lot of money for someone like Libby too, to be sure, no pocket change. But when you make $170k per year (I have assumed an approximately similar per-year raise rate), it's certainly much easier to take. Especially when you have worked as a top lawyer for years and years.
He's going to lose his ability to practice law? Oh no! Of course, considering that he was hired by the conservative think tank Hudson Institute in January of '06, this along with the previous salary thing are probably not that big a deal. (Fun Facts aside! Google hudson institute libby. The first link is to a Hudson Institute staff bio page that is, shockingly, now blank, except for Libby's title at the top, "Senior Advisor." You can bet the farm that anybody working as a Senior Advisor for the Hudson Institute is making a boatload more money than you or I. Another Fun Fact, if you click on the second link in the google search, you get to the Hudson Institute's press release about hiring Libby. He is not listed in their staff directory (despite still having a blank page under their staff bios), but even better if you search for "Lewis Libby" on their webpage, you get 0 results! They are actually covering up the fact that he works for them.)
Furthermore, I am pretty sure that as a direct result of his actions, a certain Ms. Valerie Plame can never again work in her goddamn chosen field. And, unlike the case of Mr. Libby, where he won't be a lawyer again because he was found guilty by a jury of his peers of a number of crimes, Plame was brought down because her husband was a little too critical of the administration for their liking; I don't think anybody denies this. Plame was a victim of the administration's croneyism; in another way, so was Libby.
The speculation is that, what with Bush's poll numbers so low (29% - worst since Tricky Dick!), he had to do something to appease what is left of his base, the real neo-cons ("The neutrality and factual accuracy of this article or section are disputed" I bet they are!). Gotta get Libby out of jail to stop the leaking boat. Well, I for one hope that it doesn't work. Keep your 29%, you douchebag, but I expect that the 5% that were on the fence on that approval poll will now firmly be in the "disapprove" category.
Somebody deserves to go to jail for what happened. I think it criminal that this guy was pardoned.
I know that I have a number of conservative friends, although they may have stopped reading this blog about 25 liberal rants ago, but if they look at this, does anybody think this president character is on the right track? Does anybody approve of anything he does? Inquiring mind wants to know.