~~~Special ED~~~

It's one of the people I went to high school with that I liked: ~~~Special ED~~~

Magical Realism

Some discussion on what defines magical realism.

The Tree That Ate Roger Williams

Roger Williams, founder of Rhode Island (eighth grade social studies, woot!), was buried near an apple tree. When a few of his descendents exhumed his grave, with a mind to put his remains somewhere more prominent, they found no bones. Instead, they found a portion of the apple tree's root, which followed where Roger's spine had been, and split in two for his legs.

Kyoto Emissions

It's the official UN data for greenhouse gas.

Chinese Cave Dwellings

70 million Chinese live in caves.

Redheaded Runaway

Here's another friend of mine.

Steller's Jay

They're the cheeky blue birdies you've seen around, the ones who make raucous screeches, and steal your food.

Mother Earth News

The original guide to living wisely.

I only found it because I was looking up buttermilk.

Marine Conservation

"The world would be a poorer place if we lost the way of life that fishing and the ocean have provided us and our coastal communities. Whether it is in a remote Eskimo or Aleut village in Alaska, the working waterfront of towns like Kodiak or Sitka, or the fishing ports in New England, there is a richness to our history and culture that cannot be replaced."

David Benton, head of the Marine Conservation Alliance, interview with Grist

Another Green Link

It's the Institue for Lifecycle Environmental Assessment! And with a scientific analysis, they recommend plastic over paper bags.

Solar Kismet

Here's an interesting blog, if I become the sort to reads blogs of people I don't know.

Go green, young man

It's the New American Dream, with a few simple steps you can take to turn the tide and help save the planet. Plus, here's a more exhaustive list.

Alaskans sure it's getting warmer

It's an Anchorage Daily News story on a statewide survey about opinions of global warming. A much higher percentage of Alaskans than the natural average believe it's true, most likely because the effects are more obvious. Still, there's a somewhat unique approach to it: "On the bright side, 73 percent think temperatures will be more comfortable, and 60 percent expect tourism to grow because of warmer weather."

Names

Here's a another way to waste time -- www.placesnamed.com. If you want to know all the zip codes in Seattle, for instance, or more importantly where there are towns named Tiger, this is your place.

It is also, strangely, full of census data on name frequency. My last name is the 43,063rd most popular last name (surname) in the United States, my first name the 88th most popular female first name. For fun, try and guess the most popular male and female first names. It's much more staid and English than you'd think. Give up? XX & XY.

Wooden Boats

There's nice ones, and less nice ones...

Angel's Landing

I climbed this crazy crazy trail in Zion National Park, in Utah.

Global Voices

The World is speaking, for instance, in Ukraine. Are you listening?

counterpoint

And from Akvarium, another side of the same argument Gazmanov is making

politics of pop

Oleg Gazmanov seems more and more interesting, kind of like Zhirinovsky...
Gazmanov - Novaya Zarya

Turns out that youtube is acquiring a slavic element

You can also see Diskoteka Avaria, who are bigger fans of american culture
Ostrie Ataki
HHHiRNR

or some more realistically (?) portrayed youth


or if you don't mind their language, some interesting recombinations of Leningrad
Karlsson na Dacha
Anime??

and it turns out the guy in Brat is the poslednii geroi Kino had in mind...

and there's a bit of uploaded Kino footage

Green Theme Zine

To go with green drinks, let me also give a shout out for Grist Magazine. I know a girl who works there, but stupidly never looked up the publication for the first, oh, ten months of our acquaintance. Now that I've seen it, it turns out to be super awesome.

Grist - "it's gloom and doom with a sense of humor. So laugh now -- or the planet gets it."