DVD REVIEW: The Cove

Thanks to Netflix, I was able to see the Academy Award-winning documentary The Cove, about the killing of dolphins in Taijii, Japan.

Even though you know what the film is about going into it, I can not over-estimate the impact some of the images of the slaughter of dolphins has upon the viewer. That being said, the film is also exceedingly well-directed and well-paced. The filmmakers make use of all sorts of interesting technology (night-vision cameras, hidden cameras) which gives the film the feeling of a caper film.

Another aspect of the film is the depiction of the Japanese fisherman and government bureaucrats who are stubbornly defending the insupportable slaughter of dolphins. The film makes the devastating point that although the Japanese claim they need to "harvest" dolphin meat for domestic consumption, there are increasingly dangerous levels of toxic chemicals which make the product increasingly unsuitable for humans.

In the end, The Cove is a very engaging film which also informs the viewer of an important environmental story.

Running Time: 2 hour, 33 minutes. MPAA Rating: Rated R for strong graphic violence, language and brief sexuality.

OVERALL GRADE: A.

ACTING: N/A
IMAGERY: A-.
PLOT: A.
IMPACT: A+.

Happy Earth Day!

Hat/tip to Derrick's Window.

California Has a Drought of Jobs and Water

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a statewide drought emergency on Friday due to three years of below-average rain and urged Californians to reduce water usage by 20%.

Additionally, the unemployment rate in the state increased to 10.1%, the highest in 26 years and in Los Angeles County it is even worse:

Conditions are even worse in Los Angeles County, which saw its unemployment rate jump to 10.5% in January from 9.2% the month before.

[...]

The outlook for Southern California is considerably worse than the national forecast presented by President Obama's budget team this week because the economy here -- usually considered resilient because of its diversity -- relies on sectors battered by this particular recession, said economist Jack Kyser of the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp.

L.A. County alone, his group projects, will lose 89,000 jobs in 2009, and Kyser suggested the unemployment rate could surpass 10.5% for the year. In the Inland Empire, the group predicts the unemployment rate will rise to 11.1%, while Orange County, which lost 41,400 jobs last year, is projected to see unemployment climb to 7.3%, the highest rate in 16 years. January figures for those counties will be released next month.

Los Angeles County lost a net 41,900 jobs last year and nearly all of them -- about 41,000 -- were in retail, manufacturing and construction, in that order. In January, retail shed 15,100 jobs, manufacturing lost 6,800, and construction, 4,800. The three sectors were caught in the collapse of the housing boom and recession.

To make matters worse, another key California industry -- the film business -- lost 22,300 jobs in January, leading L.A. County layoffs for the month.

Melting Ice - Heating Debate

Via the BBC - Ice loss opens Northwest Passage

The Northwest Passage is one of the most fabled sea routes in the world - a short cut from Europe to Asia through the high Arctic.

Recent years have seen a marked shrinkage in its ice cover, but this year it was extreme, Esa says.

It says this made the passage "fully navigable" for the first time since monitoring began in 1978.

[. . .]

Scientists have linked the changes to global warming which may be progressing faster than expected.

Whether global warming is due to human activity or just natural cycles, it would seem that the Northwest Passage opening up is a big deal. It seems clear that we going to have to learn to deal with the repercussions of these climate associated changes whether we like it or not. I find it interesting that it is already causing some international debate and disagreement.

The opening of the sea routes are already leading to international disputes.

Canada says it has full rights over those parts of the Northwest Passage that pass though its territory and that it can bar transit there.

But this has been disputed by the US and the European Union.

They argue new route should be an international strait that any vessel can use.

And I'm sure there will be more unforeseen circumstances that arise from these global climate changes that will require international attention and negotiation as time goes on.

Summer 2007 Road Trip: Day 3

Day 3 The third day of the road trip was spent driving from Sunnyvale to San Francisco and hanging out with friends and family in "The City." We walked along Valencia Street in The Mission District and had amazing sandwiches for lunch at Bi-Rite Market with ice cream at the Bi-Rite Creamery across the street. We split dog-sitting duties as Mad Professah took a detour to go to a meeting in Marin County and took the ferry back from Larkspur Landing Ferry Terminal to the Ferry Building in San Francisco, walked to the Embarcadero Station and took Muni to the corner of 24th and Church a few blocks from where we were staying in the Mission District. The whole trip on public transportation took about 2 hours and cost under $10. I got back just in time for barbecue chicken and a vicious game of Blokus (won by the expert player pictured below).

Summer 2007 Road Trip: Day 2

Day 2


The second day of the Summer 2007 Road Trip was spent mostly in Big Basin Redwoods State Park, home of the tallest trees on planet Earth, the California Redwood.

After arriving in beautiful Sunnyvale, CA on Day 1 after a five hour drive from Santa Barbara, CA and checking in at The Maple Tree Inn (one of the few places that was in the right location that was pet-friendly) we woke up at the crack of noon and drove up into the hills above Santa Cruz for about 90 minutes on a very winding road to reach Big Basin Redwoods State Park, home of some of the tallest and oldest living organisms in the planet: the California Redwood. As one enters the park, here is the very first tree one sees.

Right next to the office where one pays ones park fees is a cross-section of a redwood showing the numerous growth rings of a very old sempervirens (literally "long living") tree.

Here's a close-up showing the details of the metal plaques showing dates that the tree had lived through to put its amazing longevity into human perspective.

And here's the close-up of the plaque next to the growth rings.
Unfortunately almost all of the trails in Big Basin Redwoods state Park (and other parks) do not allow dogs, so after we had a lovely picnic (severely attacked by vicious yellowjacket/hornets) we set off for a walk on one of the paths we could take the dog.
On the way back we stopped at a "turn out" to get a view of the forest from one of the high points in the Santa Cruz mountains.

Summer 2007 Road Trip: Day 1

Mad Professah spent the last week on a "Great American Road Trip" to see the tallest and largest trees in the world, Sequoia sempervirens and Sequoiadendron giganteum respectively,which just happen to be several hours drive from my home in Los Angeles. This week, as a blogging special series I will be recounting the details of my trip.

Day 1

Day 1 was mostly spent picking up a rental car from Fox Rent-a-car near LAX. The other half took public transportation all the way. He walked to the Pasadena Gold Line Southwest Museum station, then took the train to Union Station, and from there the Fly-A-Way Bus to LAX and finally a shuttle bus from LAX to Fox Rent-a-Car. Then it took about an hour to get a grey Honda Civic Hybrid (pictured above) rented. The entire ordeal (from leaving home to arriving back home again in the rental car) took nearly four hours.

I was up in Santa Barbara at a tennis camp the whole time and got picked up around 7:30 pm and we drove up the 101 freeway from Goleta (where University of California, Santa Barbara is) all the way to Sunnyvale, CA.

Bush and Merkel reach an agreement

Via the BBC - G8 leaders agree to climate deal

Leaders of the G8 nations have agreed to seek "substantial" cuts in emissions in an effort to tackle climate change.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the G8 would negotiate within a UN framework to seek a replacement for the Kyoto Protocol by the end of 2009.

No mandatory target was set for the cuts, but Mrs Merkel's preference for a 50% emissions cut by the year 2050 was included in the agreed statement.

[. . .]

Speaking to reporters in Heiligendamm, UK Prime Minister Tony Blair deflected concerns about the absence of a precise definition of the term "substantial cuts".

"I'm both surprised and very pleased at how far we have come forward in the couple of years since [the 2005 G8 summit at] Gleneagles," he told reporters.

"Now we have an agreement that there will be a climate change deal, it will involve everyone, including the US and China, and it will involve substantial cuts."

Yeah, I'll believe it when I see it in action. It is often easier to agree to act than to actually act.

Direct Proportionality and Gasoline Prices

Ahhh, another example of why Mathematics is Important, Reason #231! Recall the Ideal Gas Law, pV=nRT, which means that the volume V of a gas is directly proportional to the temperature T of that gas held at a fixed pressure. Why is this important? Gasoline!

In an article in the Los Angeles Times on May 9, 2007, "Not just inflated prices but inflated fuel":

The U.S. government defines a gallon of gas this way: At 60 degrees, a gallon is 231 cubic inches. But when fuel is warmer than 60 degrees, the liquid expands. When it's colder, the fuel contracts.

U.S. oil companies and distributors account for temperature when they sell to each other. Wholesale facilities are equipped with devices that adjust volumes to bring the gallon tally in line with the 60-degree standard.

[...]

That equity, however, stops short of retail fuel pumps. Service stations dispense gas and diesel as if every drop is flowing at 60 degrees — and they charge customers as if they are getting government-standard gallons.

[...]

Gasoline expands or contracts 1% for every 15-degree change in the fuel's temperature. Diesel volumes change 0.6% per 15-degree change. The difference seems small, but it adds up fast in California, where fuel temperatures can be much higher than 60 degrees and prices are steep. It's a bigger hit for truckers, whose rigs gulp 20,000 gallons or more of diesel a year.

So, as you think about rising gas prices, recall the principle of direct proportionality from your high school algebra class.

CFLs are OK with me

Via WaPo - Fluorescent Bulbs Are Known to Zap Domestic Tranquillity

"There is still a big hurdle in convincing Americans that lighting-purchase decisions make a big difference in individual electricity bills and collectively for the environment," said Wendy Reed, director of the federal government's Energy Star campaign, which labels products that save energy and has been working with retailers to market CFL bulbs.

"I have heard time and again that a husband goes out and puts the bulb into the house, thinking he is doing a good thing," Reed said. "Then, the CFL bulb is changed back out by the women. It seems that women are much more concerned with how things look. We are the nesters."

I found this article to be particularly interesting because in the past year we have been fazing out our incandescent bulbs and replacing them with CFLs. It was actually my husband's idea (I think) but I was never opposed to the idea. There are still a few places that we do not use them, simply because of the nature of the fixture. The CFL bulbs that we buy say that they cannot be used in fixtures with are totally enclosed and we have about 3 fixtures like that around our home. We did have a fourth in the kitchen, but we actually changed out the fixture so that we could use the CFLs there.

I guess I'm not the stereotypical woman in many ways. I've never been much of a decorator, and that could explain why the CFLs don't bother me. It bugs me a little that they don't work with the dimmer, but we really never used the dimmer that much anyway, so it is no great loss.

Supreme Court saves the world from global warming

The Supreme Court ruled today in a 5-4 decision written by Nixon appointee Justice John Paul Stevens that the Environmental Protection Administration does have the authority to regulate carbon dioxide emissions.

First, the majority brushed aside the Bush administration’s assertion that the Clean Air Act does not treat carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases as “pollutants,” and thus does not give the E.P.A. the authority to regulate them.

Secondly, the five justices declared that contrary to the administration, Massachusetts and the other dozen or so states and other plaintiffs that sued the E.P.A. do indeed have legal standing to pursue their suit. In order to establish standing, a federal court plaintiff must show that there is an injury that can be traced to the defendant’s behavior, and that the injury will be relieved by the action the lawsuit seeks.

The majority depended upon the swing vote of Justice Anthony Kennedy, with Chief Justice John Roberts, Samuel Alito, Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas all agreeing with the losing federal government's position.

Did anyone see last night's Discovery Channel's Planet Earth episode on "Ice Worlds" last night?

Al Gore is right.