At the Fort, it has been a quiet and relaxing New Year celebration: no parties were attended, no friends came round to celebrate. It was just us and the TV, and two glasses of illegally-imported Moet.Disappointingly, the Kiwi televisual New Year celebrations were non-existent. We were hoping for some Kiwi TV extravaganza so we could understand the local customs pertaining to this auspicious
Audio
Ding dong - Badman forward, Badman pull up - Miles Ahead
Tony Matterhorn - Dutty wine - Miles Ahead
Turbulence - Notorious (Diplo Mix) - XL
Collie Buddz - Come around - epic
Marlon Asher - Ganja Farmer - Caribbean Underground Productions
Marcia Griffiths - Melody life - Trojan
Suzanne Couch - Smile - Lionvibes
The slits - Kill them with love - oNly lovers left alive
Mahotella Queens - Sibuyile - manteca
Toumani Diabate's Symmetric Orchestra - Salsa - Worldcircuit
Squeezel - Cherry sun - Cheap and Best
Tunng - Woodcat - Full Time Hobby
65 days of Static - DRove through Ghosts to get here - MOnotreme Records
Fabienne Miranda - Destiny Records - Ruby's Records
Black slavery Days - The skull - Ruby's Records
The Black survivors - Come Away Jah Jah Jah Children
Norma winston / Ian bellamy - White horses - Pepperhill records
Little Axe - Trouble in mind - Realworld
James McMurtry - we can't make it here anymore (from album childish things) - comprade records (houston records)
The Process - Rap down
Slyvester - You make me feel - Trikont - us349
Culture - LOve shines brighter -
plunderphonics - james brown
Santa Claus was very nice to me this year and dropped the "3Dconnexion SpaceNavigator
In the past week I've flown around my old hometown in England, my new hometown in the USA, along with more cities and famous landmarks than I care to mention. Mt. Everest, Mt. St. Helens, and the Grand Canyon were great places to explore. No more messing around with a regular mouse and CTRL, ALT and SHIFT keys. The Space Navigator is so much more instinctive and natural, and it's very attractively priced too. A fabulous device!
I've also been flying around the Last Chance To See locations which you'll find in our Another Chance To See KMZ file, and also the Jane Goodall Chimpanzee Google Earth blog which is a very clever use of Google Earth. The Space Navigator brings so much to the whole experience, and it's thoroughly addictive! The device is not just for Google Earth though. It also works with Google Sketchup, Autodesk products, and much more besides. I highly recommend it.
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google
BBC Radio 4 is running another of their public service exercises in audience participation: this year listeners are invited to vote for the law they would like to scrap, in the Christmas Repeal Vote.Readers may recall last year's study, in which the law that most people would like to see enacted was one that permitted public flayings and stonings in the street for petty theft, or something.As I
Just a few pounds or dollars will help towards some of the items shown here in Save The Rhino's list of needs. Anyone in the world can donate, because JustGiving's secure website will convert your credit card donation to GB pounds automatically. Thanks again to all our contributors so far. Happy New Year to you and rhinos everywhere!
Well Christmas was is over. Can't believe its come and gone. It always seems to creep up on you..Its been hard to believe in Christmas this year. The weather in Florida has been so hot. Today is probably the second coldest day in Dec. O, Well.......I was blessed with a Polaroid Daylab....So stay tuned for those on the famous rapidview blog!!!!
Here's a few Mountain Gorilla stories that wafted my way recently. I've been terribly busy in the weeks leading up to Christmas, and now I've got the dreaded lurgy that's going around, so apologies for not keeping up with all of this.
Meet Rachel Hogan, the wildlife volunteer being hailed as the new Gorillas In The Mist girl - Sunday Mirror
The Mountain Gorilla is not known to have contracted the ebola virus - Age.com.au
Former Chelsea and England football player Graeme Le Saux on ITV's Extinct - The Times
Le Saux is scheduled to make his pitch tomorrow night. On the launch show, there was a tantalising glimpse of him giving it the full Sir David Attenborough, whispering into the camera from a crouched position in some tall grass as, over his shoulder, several tonnes of male ape was debating with itself whether or not to eat him. Quality work from Le Saux, although, if we’re being picky, Sir David never looks quite so terrified.The Mountain Gorilla Twins featured on the Extinct show - The Sun
Gorilla Tourism Feature - Reuters
About 10,650 tourists came to Rwanda's park last year. Up to November this year, nearly 12,000 had been, park figures show.
To alleviate fears of wasting valuable moments sofa-ing several thousand miles from most of our friends and family, Cowboy and I decided to go on a walk for the day. We did a fair bit of walking back in Blighty, and it was rewarding every single time except one, when we were with a group of 'friends' and the person who had declared himself the mapreader refused to let anyone else glimpse the map
This weekend I finally managed to do some long overdue brewing. I brewed a British ESB on Saturday and a Belgian Dubbel today.
Tire Biter Bitter
Amount Item Type % or IBU
8 lbs Maris Otter (Crisp) (4.0 SRM) Grain 86.5 %
1 lbs Amber (Crisp) (27.5 SRM) Grain 10.8 %
4.0 oz Pale Crystal Malt (45.0 SRM) Grain 2.7 %
1.00 oz Northdown [8.50%] (90 min) Hops 41.9 IBU
0.50 oz Goldings, East Kent [5.00%] (30 min) Hops 8.8 IBU
0.50 oz Goldings, East Kent [5.00%] (5 min) Hops 2.3 IBU
1 Pkgs British Ale (White Labs #WLP005) Yeast-Ale
Estimated IBU: 53.0 IBU
Two Bits Abbey Dubbel
Amount Item Type % or IBU
8 lbs Pale Ale (Crisp) (4.0 SRM) Grain 58.2 %
3 lbs Munich (Dingemans) (5.5 SRM) Grain 21.8 %
1 lbs Crystal - Medium-dark? (75.0 SRM) Grain 7.3 %
8.0 oz Aromahttp://www2.blogger.com/img/gl.link.giftic Malt (Dingemans) (19.0 SRM) Grain 3.6 %
1.25 oz Northern Brewer [8.50%] (90 min) Hops 39.3 IBU
1 lbs 4.0 oz Piloncillo (10.0 SRM) Sugar 9.1 %
1 Pkgs Abbey Ale (White Labs #WLP530) Yeast-Ale
Estimated IBU: 39.3 IBU
I've really started to feel comfortable with the brewing tasks and brew day, so I can multitask while mashing and boiling. I still spend 5 - 6 hours per batch, but its going to be worth it.
Steph bought me the Tap-A-Draft system from More Beer, so I'll be bottling the ESB in a week or so and drinking it a few days later. The dubbel is going to take some time to mature, so I don't expect to drink it until at least March.
Up next is a Belgian strong dark ale that I found in this post from Uncle Fester I'm going to rack it on to the yeast cake from the dubbel after secondary, saving myself from having to make a starter. Not that I mind making a starter, its been great for getting vigorous fermentation right from the start with my previous efforts. However, I'm ready to take it to the next level and reuse my yeast to make each batch a little less expensive.
I've gone back to drink some of the beers I made earlier in the year and haven't tried in a month, or more. The dunkelweisen are now overcarbonated and explode everywhere! The oaked porter has mellowed nicely and gets better with age. Next time, I need to use less oak chips and soak them in bourbon! The pumpkin porter is also mellowing nicely, I'll have plenty left for next year! Finally, the Sierra Nevada Pale Ale Squared is nice, but not hoppy enough. However, at 9.6% ABV, it is very smooth and easy to drink. This will knock you on your ass! (Right, James?)
1. Awoke feeling as though I had been stomped on and hurled down some stairs. I shall explain tomorrow but please know that there is a silver lining to this storm-cloud and I am not irreparably damaged.2. Showered off yesterday's debris , and proceeded downstairs where fresh coffee and fucks bizz awaited along with toasted crumpets. 3. Opened gifts and spoke to parents, at times
So, the networking problems were of my own making. Oftentimes I reorganize applications from /Applications to subdirectories, such as /Applications/Utilities. I did this with the System Preferences application. The app was also in my dock.
So when I copied over my apps, preferences, etc. from my old PowerBook to the new MacBook, over came the old System Preferences application too! I didn't know I had even done it or even consider that an option! My best guess is that the PPC version of the app didn't like running on the Intel MacBook. Anyway, I figured this out halfway through a complete reinstall of OS X
and copying all my data from the old laptop over to the new one.
Time wasted? At least 4 hours.
D'oh!
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Mac
I finally broke down and bought myself a new sleek, black MacBook. Yay! It showed up yesterday and after installing some RAM and applications, its showing what a powerful beast it really is. I am ripping a DVD — for archival purposes only — usng HandBrake. On my 1GHz 12" Powerbook this would take 4 - 7 hours. HandBrake is reporting that it will complete the task in ~45 min! Woohoo!
Looking forward to installing Parallels and playing with VM images tomorrow... perhaps. In the meantime, there is a problem with the Ethernet networking which may cause me to reinstall everything from scratch. That may be tomorrow's task du jour, if I can't find another solution tonight.
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Mac
Audio
Roland Alphonso & the Skatalites – Nimble foot ska – Heartbeat
Don Drummond & Roland Alphonso – Heaven and earth - Heartbeat
Don Drummond and the City Slickers – Don Cosmic - Heartbeat
Tappa Zukie – Revolution Version – Trojan Fan Club
Reckless Breed – Chin chow – Wackies
Tappa Zukie – Double Struggle – Trojan Fan Club
To Rococo Rot – Schon sehr viel telefoniert – Staubgold/Gusstaff Records
Tussle – Comma – Smalltown Supersound
Tom Waits – Lord I've been changed - Anti
Tom Waits – Nirvana - Anti
Tom Waits – Young at heart - Anti
The Necks – Abillera – ReR
Panda Bear - Bro's - Fat Cat
Gyptian - Serious Times (TRuth and soul vocal version) - XL Records
Bob Andy - walk a mile in my shoes - Trojan records
Dan Reeder - Clean elvis - Oh Boy Records
Butterbeans and Susie - Papa Ain't No Santa Claus, Mama Ain't No Christmas Tree - viper
Hovis Presley - Green Tomatoes
Gangbe brass Band - Tagbavo - Counte Jour
Orchestre Baka de Gbine - Gati Bongo - Baka
Amadou and Mariam - M'Biefe Balafon - Radio Bemba
Wailin' Jennys - Swallow - Red HOuse records -
The Long Winters - ultimatum - Munich records
Plus Device - Our Pleasure - Realization
Octave One / Random Noise Generation - Rock my dub - Tresor 227 - lawrence burden / lenny burden
Martin Buttrich - Full Clip - Planet E
For the past few months, I have worked full-time, had some vague semblance of a life, and managed three blogs. It's all gotten a bit much!
As of Jan. 2, I will be combining two of my blogs. My New Orleans blog will remain as-is, but I will be combining The Low-Carb Lab with this blog, at this address. This blog will expand beyond my own diet experiences to include some commentary on research, dining and other food issues. Or at least that's the plan!
Stay tuned, and check back on January 2!
Went to my doctor today--I call her M.D. Lite--and was all prepared to be praised for losing 41 pounds since my last visit in July.
SNORT.
She didn't even catch it. I finally couldn't stand it any longer and pointed it out to her. But then again, she did refer me for a baseline bone-density scan following my abnormal heel density reading recently, which indicated I'm at risk for osteoporosis. So she gets points for that.
And she did introduce herself when she came in--very polite, since I've only been seeing her for 16 months since my real doctor fled town for Hurricane Katrina and never came back. Oh well.
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China's People's Daily Online reports that some Chinese scientists remain noncommittal over the findings (read: lack of) of the recent Baiji expedition.
Wang Ding, vice director of the hydrobiology institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and head of the research team, insisted it was still too early to say whether or not the dolphin, also known as baiji, is extinct, even though none were found along the 3,400-km expedition route.So it's going to be many years before the scientific community can officially declare the Baiji extinct, and thus the search WILL continue.
"A species are only said to be extinct after human beings fail to find any in the wild for 50 years according to the standards of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature," Wang said.
Chinese scientists said they will continue to search for the rare white-flag (baiji) dolphin although it is possibly extinct after a 38-day search failed to find any in the Yangtze River.
[...]
"We will try every effort to save them as long as they are not announced to be extinct," said Wang, who is vice-director of the hydrobiology institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
What was that? A knock at the door? Surely not: it's the middle of the night.Apparently, when a Kiwi electrician says "First thing in the morning", he means 7.36am.
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Kiwiana
It's getting to be that time of year again, when we meet with dear friends and family, share in love, food, experiences, gift giving, and all around good times. We also share some pretty darn awful music too. You can be guaranteed that when one of the following travesties plays on the radio station doing 24/7 holiday favorites, at least one bozo in your office will say "Oh gee I love this
This was one of the dirtiest kids in the whole preschool. But she never stopped smiling. She would smile while she was eating, she smiled the whole day. The funny thing was, her mom never smiled when she picked her up......no matter how dirty how could you not smile at a face like that????
The 50,000 free copies of An Inconvenient Truth that were rejected by the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) are being offered directly to teachers free of charge via Participate.net.
The DVDs are being donated on a first come, first serve basis to teachers across the country interested in using the film as a teaching tool in classrooms.
Educators interested in applying for their copy should visit the following link to request the DVD. Delivery time is 6-8 weeks. A free curriculum guide is also available for download.
The Australian division of PricewaterhousCooper has announced a bold plan to become carbon neutral within 18 months.
PwC is the world's largest accounting firm, and has been a leader in measuring the economic implications of global warming and the costs of addressing climate change. In October, the firm produced a "green growth plus" strategy outlining how to reduce worldwide greenhouse gas emissions by 60% by 2050 and stabilize global CO2 levels at 450 parts per million. It appears they are now putting that plan to test inside their own company.
In the process, they are also creating a stranglehold in the carbon accounting market and the potential for windfall profits in the coming decade as increasing numbers of businesses and governments turn towards carbon reduction strategies.
Komodo Dragon parthenogenesis is back in the news again this Christmas. Parthenogenesis is the process of eggs being developed without being fertilised by a sperm. This Christmas virgin birth is due to take place at Chester Zoo in the UK. BBC News has the story...
Flora, a resident of Chester Zoo in the UK, is awaiting her clutch of eight eggs to hatch, with a due-date estimated around Christmas.We reported a previous case of purported Komodo Dragon parthenogenesis back in May 2006, this time in France.
Kevin Buley, a curator at Chester Zoo and a co-author on the paper, said: "Flora laid her eggs at the end of May and, given the incubation period of between seven and nine months, it is possible they could hatch around Christmas - which for a 'virgin birth' would finish the story off nicely.
"We will be on the look-out for shepherds, wise men and an unusually bright star in the sky over Chester Zoo."
Even in light of looming disaster and outrageous spin campaigns, a look at the lighter side should always be welcomed. Readers in need of a laugh can get theirs in this week's edition of The Onion where right wing smear efforts against Al Gore are parodied.
DESPERATE MEASURES - Former vice president Al Gore takes a flamethrower to the Ross Ice Shelf in Antarctica to boost weekend ticket sales for An Inconvenient Truth.
The Green Party of Canada has launched an online campaign aimed directly at the major media conglomerates to have them included in the next election's television debates.
The Green Party has been excluded from previous television debates despite running candidates in every one of Canada's 308 ridings for two straight elections. Last election the Greens garnered 660,000 votes, making them eligible to receive federal funding alongside other major parties, and current polling indicates that close to 10% of Canadians will vote Green this time around. However, control over who gets to attend the debates lays with the networks covering the events, not with Elections Canada, and not with the voting public.
Canadians who want to hear a Green voice in the next elections - or those who want the debates to be truly democratic regardless of their party of choice - can urge the networks to include Elizabeth May by signing the Green Party's online email petition.
Add your voice and tell a friend.
Over a year ago, while wandering through the mall, I found jeans on sale and bought a pair without trying them on.
Big mistake. I couldn't even pull them up over my big fat butt, so they went into the bottom of the wardrobe to be returned later. Then, of course, I never did that, either.
And THEN, to add insult to injury, I gained 40 pounds or so and they gathered dust and were forgotten.
Till yesterday, when I was cleaning out the wardrobe in search of a long-lost Christmas sweater and there they were, tags still on.
Not only do they fit but I don't even have to lie in a prone position, knees bent, to get them buttoned and zipped. You know, the fat girl pants routine.
Yee-hah. Wonder what else is in that wardrobe? I see a holiday project coming on.
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general
Looks like a Sweet Potato, doesn't it?Not in New Zealand, my friends. In New Zealand, it is a Kumara. Kumaras were brought here by the Maori, and come in three varieties. The one you see above is a golden Kumara (I also have an orange Kumara, which is the most common sweet potato in the UK, in the cupboard). The kumara appears to be more popular in NZ than the humble white potato, which I
On the LC Train since Aug 6, 2006
Lost to date 46 lbs
I'm stocking up on some favorite low-carb snacks to take with me on my upcoming holiday trip to Hot'Lanta and Alabama, figuring that having an alternative to high-carb snacks will at least keep me from going overboard.
Here's the assortment:
--Just the Cheese Popped Cheese, butter flavor. I can't possibly overeat these because they are ridiculously salty and since I've been low-carbing I seem very sensitive to too much salt. They have a nice crunch and flavor, though.
--Oh Yeah! Protein Wafers, peanut butter/chocolate flavor. These are great Twix-like snack bars that are high in protein (15g per serving), low in carbs (3g per serving) and NO SUGAR ALCOHOLS. Thank you, thank you.
--Big Train Brownies, from the mix. These aren't really LOW carb at 8g per tiny square, but they're a heckuva lot lower than regular sugar brownies. And, again, no sugar alcohols.
--ChocoPerfection Bars. I try to keep these around at all times. The chocolate tastes great, they're high fiber and extremely filling, and...can you see the pattern here...no sugar alcohols.
--Last, but not least, the gross-sounding-but-heavenly-tasting Cinnamunch Pork Puffs, made by the Flax-Z-Snax folks whose Sweet Nut'ns I cannot have in my house because I can't stop eating them. But the Pork Puffs are terrific, sweetened with Splenda, and only 5g carbs for the whole bag. I buy 'em by the case.
So, there you have it. My holiday strategy. My goal isn't to be "perfect" but to be "reasonable."
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Tips
For any of you familiar with the restaurant chain, Chili's, you know the Awesome Blossom. In other restaurants it's called a "Blooming Onion" or an "Onion Blossom." Big, fried, and greasy, with a dipping sauce to dip your grease in.
So here I am on Sunday. It's 1 p.m., breakfast was at 6:45, and I'm hungry and on the road. So I head to Chili's, where I figure I can find something relatively harmless for lunch. Not in the mood for a bunless burger, so I hone in on the "Guiltless Grill" selections. Hey! They list carb counts! Let's see....95g, 80g, and here's a bland slab of salmon for 31g. Yuck.
So I pick out the fajitas instead, which I figure I'll eat without the tortilla. Seems a good selection. I check out the appetizers and then I spy it: the Awesome Blossom. How bad can it be, I ask myself rhetorically. After all, onions are a vegetable albeit high in naural sugars. It's not THAT heavily breaded, after all. I could scrape off some breading. And, besides, I'm not eating my tortillas.
So that's what I do. It was so greasy it made me swoon and the salt must have sent my blood pressure into the ozone. Pretty tasty, in other words. And then the fajitas came along and I was stuffed and happy.
Till I got home and went on the amazing website calorieking.com, which has a large selection of brand-name and restaurant nutritional info. First, I look up the fajitas, listed in the calorieking database with or without tortillas. 20 grams of carbs. Not bad, not bad, and I didn't even eat the guacamole, which I think looks and tastes like it must have come out of someone's nose. Gross but true.
Then I looked up the Awesome Blossom, and I learned why they call it awesome, and it has nothing to do with the taste. That would be: 2710 calories, 203 grams ft (36g saturated), 6360 mg sodium, 194 carbs (15g fiber) and 24g protein.
YIKES!!!!!!! And I ate half of the darned thing.
Okay, scratch yesterday. Start over today. Note to self: please check calorieking for your restaurant menu BEFORE you go, not after.
This is a story dating from a couple weeks ago but well worth bringing to attention.
A court in New South Wales Australia, has ruled that a proposed coal mine must take into account its impact on climate change in its environmental assessment before being allowed to go forward. The ruling could impact a wide range of Australia's mining, energy and manufacturing industries, as well offer a lesson to Canadian business leaders.
The ruling occurred despite the fact that Australia has not ratified Kyoto, and was made on the strength of Australia's existing public interest laws - something that will become an increasing factor as evidence grows about the harmful human impacts of unchecked global warming. Such precedents have already occurred here in Canada as well.
Three years ago BC Hydro planned to build the GSX pipeline, an underwater natural gas supply line to run along the floor of the Georgia Strait to Vancouver Island where it would fuel gas powered electricity generation. A federal review panel insisted that BC Hydro's proposal include a plan to offset the new greenhouse gas emissions caused by the project by 50% - the first ever decision of this kind in Canada. The project has since been abandoned, but the precedent remains in place.
Similar decisions will become more common in both countries, and as they do it will be increasingly in business' own interest to stop obstructing efforts to solve global warming and work with the rest of the world to establish clear rules to bring the change that inevitably needs to come.
Here at the Urban HillFort, Christmas just doesn't feel like Christmas this year. How could it, when the weather today is 20c and clear? Christmas weather is all about drizzle, drear, crisp mornings, coats, scarves and the practice of bundling on four layers for the walk to the station, only to have to disrobe inconveniently once underground in the warm fug of the tube's microclimate. I miss
Audio
Tony Curtis - rolling - xl records
Pepe Habichuela and the Bolly wood Strings - Yerbaguena
Aurelio Martinez - Tili Bugudura - Union square
Miriam Makeba - Click Song (2003) - Union square -
Umetniki - Push it - urokani dj zdena
Spank Rock - Bump - Big Dada
The marvelettes - the hUnter gets captured - universal
Not Sensibles - Wrong LOve / Blackpool rock - Snotty Snail music
Freak Streak - Warning Chavalance
Jon Redfern - i Love the Sun - Reveal Records
Hovis presley - Fistful of Rennies
Kris Drever - Poor man's son - Reveal Records
Jeremy Warmsley - Dirty Blue Jeans -Transgressive Records
The Earlies - No Love in Your Heart - Names
charles Brown - Merry christmas Baby - Viper
Alela Diane - Tainted Lace - Names
Yvonne Chaka Chaka - UmQombothi - Rough Guide
Shuar Collective - Taraf - Riverboat
Roy Cousins - Blacker black - Tamoki-Wambesi-Dove
The Royals - Oh My Love - Tamoki-Wambesi-Dove
Ha-Money - Break the Law - vp records
Exploding Star Orchestra - Sting Ray and the Beginnings of Time - Part 1 - Thrill Jockey
Galaxy 2 Galaxy - Return of the Dragons - Underground Resistance / Uncivilized world UWe193-
Jeff Mills (live with the Montpellier Philharmonic Orchestra- Entrance to the Metropolis - Tresor
The clip says it all. Without further adieu, the visionary environmental platform of Stephen Harper.
Source: Cherniak on Politics
After a year of a environmental hype followed by September's announcement of a oil friendly, non-action "approach" to the environment, Stephen Harper is planning to reshuffle cabinet in a renewed pitch to paint the Tories as a viable green option.
One of the first changes is expected to be the ousting of Environment Minister Rona Ambrose. In less than a year of heading the Harper government's environmental portfolio, Ambrose has been targeted in three separate lawsuits for failing at-risk species, failed to sell Harper's Clean Air Act to voters, and has made Canada a laughing stock on the international stage for actively opposing action on global warming. But I thought the Chronicle said it best:
Ambrose is generally thought to have been ineffective in flogging the Conservatives’ clean air plan.
But more to the point, she's been ineffective in guiding policy in the wake of a renaissance of environmental awareness.
With Dion casting himself as an environmental champion and the Green party seemingly poised to make electoral inroads, Harper may want to appoint a new minister to try to recapture the environmental agenda.
That is a no brainer, but Harper will face an up hill battle to recapture any green credentials he may once have held. Despite bold promises of action he has failed to acknowledge global warming, avoided any action on oil sands development, avoided addressing automobile emissions, and most hypocritically, done nothing to curb smog - a policy that has little to do with global warming, but one in which he touted as the foremost front he would achieve results on.
Canadians instead saw the Conservatives so-called "Green Plan II" dwindle to an "approach", and any meaningful action descend to mere lip service. Meanwhile, in the face of a growing tide of environmental awareness, Harper has once again stated that reducing greenhouse gases is not a priority.
Harper also reiterated that he doesn't intend to single out the country's energy industry as part of his plan to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide.
In the face of past inaction, a surging green party, and new liberal leadership founded on environmental principles, Harper will need to do far more than name a new group of Conservative cronies to his cabinet. What is needed is a new environmental plan that genuinely addresses global warming and gains the support of opposition parties. Otherwise he can start getting ready to move across to the aisle to the opposition side of the House of Commons, and take up his previous hobby of grimacing at the Liberal Prime Minister.
That would be what I'm supposedly having for lunch today, as my office prepares for an untraditional holiday party. We're giving up the fried turkey and casseroles and mounds of dessert for...yep...pizza.
The World's Healthiest Pizza is a local company here in the world's unhealthiest city, New Orleans, that touts the healtfulness of their pizzas but is less-than-open about how they got that way--no nutritional info is available on their website. But two slices of their large pizza, they say, have almost a day's worth of fiber, so about 9 grams of fiber per slice. The fiber they use, inulin, is "prebiotic," which they claim helps the absorption of the calcium in the cheese on the pizza, and helps boost the immune system. And it's lower in calories--one slice of a large cheese pizza has 188 calories. They use low-fat cheeses and organic toppings--including alligator sausage. How does that work, I wonder?
I work in an office full of tree-huggers, so they're all into the prebiotic, organic, vegetarian stuff. So that's what we're doing for the holiday party.
I'll report back later--should be interesting!
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Tips
My local furniture restorer's office:This definitely took the edge off the pain of having to go and get a repair-quote for the split wardrobe door so we can claim on insurance for the damage to it.
The Baiji, the rare freshwater dolphin of China's Yangtze River, has been declared extinct after a six week expedition failed to find any remaining signs of the species.
The dolphin had existed for 20 million years but was pushed to extinction in recent decades through habitat degradation, increased shipping traffic, pollution, over-fishing and ecosystem impacts of the Three Gorges dam project further up river.
"The baiji is functionally extinct. We might have missed one or two animals but it won't survive in the wild," said August Pfluger, a Swiss naturalist involved in the expedition. "We are all incredibly sad."
The loss represents the first time in decades that the world has lost a first large aquatic mammal to extinction. The last was over half a century ago when the Caribbean monk seal was killed off by hunting and over-fishing.
Start Date: Aug 6, 2006
Lost to date: 48 lbs
I'm reading Linda Moran's little book, How to Survive Your Diet, and am finding it interesting. At first, I thought her characterization of overeating as being the result of either stress or greed too simplistic. Stress, I get. As I spent my two-month evacuation from Hurricane Katrina glued to the TV watching my city die, I practically mainlined chocolate. But...Greed?
Then a funny thing happened. As I finished my lunch yesterday, I thought about getting "just a little more." But I stopped and thought about why I wanted it. I wasn't still hungry. It's just that I wanted more.
Uh-oh. Greed. And the fact that I like chewing.
Thinking of oneself as a greedy, chomping, overeating slob isn't a very pretty picture, is it? The word "Greed" is loaded. We don't like it. We don't want to be it. Yet, actually, that is a big part of it. I hate to admit it, but I think Linda Moran is right.
Hello Internet. Would you like to see inside my ipod?Yeah, me too.Mugs like me rushed to persuade their partners that an ipod mini would be the perfect Christmas 2004 gift, little knowing that in under six months a mini Mark II would be available which was better in every way. Or that Apple were working on the nano, to be available for the same price, less than a year after the release of the
This isn't really about low carb or diet today, so consider yourself warned before you read further. Sometimes a girl just needs to vent, okay?
About a month ago, my church played host to one of those mobile medical labs--you know the ones. You pay a hundred bucks or so, and they do some basic screening tests, mostly with ultrasound, to see if you have blocked carotid arteries, any signs of aortal weakness, or any life-threatening blood clots in your legs. For an extra $20 they throw in a test for osteoporosis.
Now, I should say here that I refer to my regular doctor as "MD Lite." It's not that she's young, but let's just say I think she'd be really good at diagnosing, say, a head cold. So this seemed to me to be a good chance for an overweight, middle-aged woman (jeez, how lovely I sound) to get some tests done that normally wouldn't be possible without overt symptoms. Heart disease runs in my family so I thought this was a wise thing; I threw in the osteoporosis test just for the heck of it even though I know it's thin, willowy, fragile little ladies who have that disease.
Well, the results are in.
I do not have any carotid artery blockage.
I do not have any vascular blockages.
I do not have any aortal weakness.
See where this is going?
I'm at high risk for bone breakage due to osteopenia--not a disease itself, but often a precursor to osteoporosis.
So here I am, the first fat lady in the history of the world to be heading down the road to broken hip land.
I'll be taking the results to MD Lite next week. I figure her response will be: "That's interesting."
I think that Coach's daughter's name was Kelly; I'm not sure, but I think that sounds right. Kelly, I'm fairly certain, was in her twenties and was totally headstrong and self-confident, so when she met Christine there was probably all kinds of hilarious jealousy and stereotypical passive-aggressive girl fighting. I think, like, they were always polite up front but then they'd make hell of comments implying the other one was really old or young, like maybe they'd be at dinner and they'd be eating some food and Christine would be all: "Oh, the last time I had this was [during some event]," and then Kelly would say, "Oh really? Was that before or after the [some other event that is totally old and vaguely related to Christine's event]?" The audience would laugh at this and during the laughter Christine would regain her composure and then say something like, "No dear, [some other thing implying Kelly is totally young or something]." This probably resulted in cheers from the audience instead of laughter because audiences like it when old people put young people in their place.
Then later there was probably a scene where Coach and Kelly had to talk about it (probably in Coach's office) and Coach said something like "I know she's not your mother, Kelly, but blah blah blah," and then Kelly would say something about how she doesn't want her Dad to be in a bad relationship or she's protective or some other crap and then eventually the conversation would end and they would hug each other because the problem was resolved and then after the hug Kelly would make one more joke to lighten the mood back up.
After this episode I don't think the tension between Kelly and Christine was ever discussed ever again.
Mayor David Miller of Toronto has unveiled bold new recycling and air quality targets that would divert 70% of the all city garbage away from landfills by 2010, and reduce smog causing pollutants by 20% over the next six years. He has also announced his intention to develop a comprehensive plan to reduce greenhouse gases in the city.
Details of the plan include:
- expanding the green bin program to include apartments and condominiums.
- adding to waste allowed in recycling boxes.
- enlarging blue boxes to make recycling easier.
- building a composting plant.
- developing incentives to encourage the construction of "green" buildings.
- building community recycling centres for reusable goods such as mattresses or electronic components.
- Potential "congestion" fees on vehicles entering the downtown core like those implemented in London, England.
On December 16th, Al Gore and the team behind An Inconvenient Truth are asking the public to host a viewing of the DVD at their homes and then join a national conference call with the former VP where he will be discussing global warming solutions and taking online questions.
At the time of this post 1601 groups had signed up for the event. To host your own party visit algore.com and register. You can also visit the site to search for parties in your area.
WHAT: Host or join a house party to watch An Inconvenient Truth, then join in a conference call with Al Gore, who will talk about the film and take questions live online.
WHEN: Saturday, December 16th, 7PM Eastern
HOW: Go to http://www.algore.com/ to sign up.
In colossal waste of tax payer dollars - and another clear signal that the Tories intend to do nothing to curb greenhouse gas emissions - Federal Environment Minister Rona Ambrose has asked the Auditor General to review the Liberal climate change initiatives that her Conservative Party has already cancelled.
The Minister made the announcement before the Commons environment committee, where she faced criticism for providing conflicting statements concerning the previous Liberal government and federal climate programs. Included among these was a statement that the Liberal's wasted $100 million on international emissions credits and then later backtracking saying that no credits have been purchased. She was also accused of ignoring an internal assessment by Natural Resources Canada indicating that the Liberal climate change initiatives were in fact working.
The news confirms a Conservative government that is staunchly opposed to addressing global warming, while brazenly providing false and conflicting information to the Canadian public.
In the future Rona, you might consider actually reviewing programs and doing a fact check before making decisions, let alone opening your mouth.
Program start: Aug 6, 2006
Lost to date: 46 lbs
Well, actually, it's not a new addiction. It's just an addiction I never realized I had till very recently. Talk about a light bulb going on over your head!
I have had a weight problem since approximately age 7, when in the space of two years I went from looking like a slightly malnourished skinny preschooler to a pleasantly pudgy first grader to an out of control 7-year-old. So after all those decades of struggling with weight, what did I think my food issues were? Well, during the many wasted years of low-fat dieting, I would have told you I couldn't stay away from fats. Turns out I didn't need to, Wilbur.
Then I realized, during a massive Blue Bell Ice Cream binge, that I was addicted to sugar. I would start something sweet -- or bready or both -- and couldn't stop.
So, in August, when I started my Last Diet Ever--because low carb is not really a diet but a changed way of eating, I thought--I started trying to listen to my body, to discern physical hunger from "head hunger."
Then I rediscovered low-carb snacks. There are some really fine ones. And as I calculated which ones I could eat the most of without overdoing it on carbs, the light bulb went off.
I am addicted to overeating--not food, not carbs (though they are the major triggers) but overeating. The sensation of being full.
I realize that, even as I have a ways to go with the weight loss, this is a food issue I absolutely MUST address if I'm to take it off and keep it off. Yes, you can binge on low-carb just as you can binge on high-carb (though, theoretically, it wouldn't be as harmful as all that sugar--ick! Yum! Ick! Yum!
Oh well. All that to say that I've picked up a copy of Linda Moran's book, How to Survive Your Diet and Conquer Your Food Issues Forever. You'll be hearing more about it as I work through the book on this blog. Cognitive therapy techniques, here I come.
I promise not to post anything too Freudian, though!
Low Carb "birthdate" Aug 6, 2006
Lost so far: 47 lbs
Okay, so I've started reading Linda Moran's interesting little book, Surviving Your Diet. There's a lot of food for thought there (pun intended). So far, there's a lot of talk about, well, talk. Specifically, self talk. The voice inside your head that screams "Outta My Way--Sugar Ahead" when you approach the food table at a party. The one that whines "Everybody else gets to eat what they want, and why do I have to do without, wah-wah-wah" when everyone else is eating birthday cake and you're sitting there stoically with a cup of diet soda.
Well, okay, now you've heard some of the voices in my head. If I had to boil them down to one emotional stereotype, it would be the petulant child.
"But I WANT it."
"I deserve it--it's been a hard day."
"My home is floating in three feet of water from Hurricane Katrina and I need chocolate."
Well, you get the picture. I'm the spoiled 3-year-old who wants what she wants.
Now, how do I get from there to the adult who can shut down the pity party once it begins, give myself permission to eat, and then eat like a self-controlled adult? Well, heck, if I knew the answer to that I wouldn't be in this shape to begin with.
Baby steps, baby steps. Coming up tomorrow: Chapter two, and maybe some answers.
You know, tooling around town in my new-to-me car, Windy, I was beginning to have more confidence as a driver. I am still terrified of maiming or killing an innocent passer-by, but every time I venture out, the honks are becoming fewer and farther between. At one point last week I even took one hand off the steering wheel long enough to adjust the air-conditioning from one of its two settings
Elk are alive and well in the Lower Mainland of BC for the first time in a century, following the transplanting of two separate populations two years ago, the BC Ministry of Environment is reporting.
Roosevelt elk introduced at Pitt River have multiplied from a herd of 23 animals to 40 in just two years, while a second herd at the top of Indian Arm has grown from 20 to 27 animals in a single season. Conservation officers are pleased with the success and now want to explore the possibility of reintroducing elk this winter in the Ashlu Creek/Elaho River area of the Squamish watershed, and to upper Stave Lake north of Mission.
Subsistence hunting led to the disappearance of elk from the Lower Mainland in 1900.
In July, the BC Liberals announced its intention to accept development applications for permanent lodges and other infrastructure inside 12 Provincial Parks. They have now received applications for developments in four parks - Mount Robson, Elk Lakes, Maxhamish Lake and Cape Scott.
Details about the nature of the development have been difficult to come by. However, the Western Canada Wilderness Committee is reporting that the development in Maxhamish Lake will be a privately developed fly-in fishing lodge.
To date, 13 conservation groups including the The B.C. Wildlife Federation, which represents about 30,000 hunters and anglers in the province, have joined in condemning the Liberals policy.
If you follow my blog like "Few" people do, you might be wondering why I"m posting these images again. I just found out the Polaroid Collection has accepted these images into the Permanent Collection. I just faxed them the paper work today in return they are sending me lots of film. I never thought this would happen to me, its truly an honor to be part of the Polaroid Collection. Just think, little dreams can turn into big ones.........
Audio
Afrique - House of the rising funk - from soul Makossa - Mainstream
Nas - Hip is Hop is dead featuring will.i.am - Def jam
Johnny Guitar Watson - It's about the dollar bill - Sanctuary
The haggis Horns - The Traveller - First world Records
King Sporty & The Roots Rockers - Fire Keep on Burning - Konduko
Peven Everett - Power soul - Defected
THe equals - Born Ya! - Phonogram - uk promo
Naomi Davis and The Knights featuring Cliff Driver - Wind Your Clock (Parts 1 & 2) - Freestyle Records
General Caine - Shake - J & M
Brown's Bag - No MOre LOve - di-lee
Ice "T" - The Coldest Rap (Part 1) - House Jam
Beatconductor - Soundtable - Spicy - Spicy
Paul Humphrey - Scream and Shout - Stanson Record Company
Earth Wind and Fire - Bad Tune - >From "what it is" box set rhino
The Rimshots - Takin' it - Stang Records
George Duke - I want you for myself (Tom Moulton Mix) - promo CDR
John Hardy - Hard work - Impulse
The James Taylor Quartet - It's All over -
One of my all-time favourite bloggers is back!Liz, whose blog 'Granny Gets A Vibrator' was a daily must-read for me, was diagnosed with cancer (lymphoma) several months ago. About three to four months ago, she stopped blogging.But now she's back and kicking. She's a truly inspirational character, and writes with a wit and aplomb worthy of many an accolade. You can find her at As The Tumor
The incriminating evidence regarding the National Science Teachers Association's relationship with big oil, and their refusal of 50,000 free copies of An Inconvenient Truth, is mounting in the face of public pressure and media scrutiny.
In an impeccably cited article at the Huffington Post, Laurie David, author of the op-ed that began the scandal, outlines new information about the NSTA, their Executive Director Gerald Wheeler, and the organizations relationship to big oil. Among the new evidence coming to light is:
1. Despite the fact that the NSTA said their 2001 policy prohibits them from distributing An Inconvenient Truth to its members, in 2003 they shipped 20,000 copies of a 10 part video funded by oil giant ConocoPhillips.
2. In a clear conflict of interest, the NSTA's Gerald Wheeler is listed as the Executive Producer of the ConocoPhillips film.
3. The NSTA has recently pulled online content from their website demonstrating partnerships with the American Petroleum Institute and other companies, including their joint "Science of Energy" website. (This was encountered here at the The Conscious Earth where cached Google pages were needed to reveal the pages in question).
To date, The Conscious Earth has focused on the facts surrounding the issue while taking the view that, in refusing free copies of An Inconvenient Truth, the NSTA was primarily guilty of a poor curriculum decision. However, new information coming to light is increasingly demonstrating that the NSTA is an educational body intimately tied to the oil industry and that is acting as an active partner in the distribution of anti climate change propaganda - to the detriment of the environment, quality of education and the reputation of the American school system as a whole.
Stéphane Dion has an eye towards ending the perverse subsidization of Alberta's tar sands industry. The industry has been benefiting from tax breaks and subsidies totaling $1.4 billion throughout booming crude oil prices and record corporate profits, but Dion's energy and climate change plan would change this by allowing the tax breaks to continue only if tar sands projects go carbon neutral.
Dion proposes linking tax breaks to greenhouse-gas emissions and water usage. Those projects that demonstrate they are “carbon neutral and/or provide significant water usage improvements...based on third-party verification” would retain the 100-percent capital-cost allowance. Others would not qualify.
The move would be both timely and visionary while offering the business community an opportunity to become world leaders in solving global warming. A recent report from the Pembina Institute, a not-for-profit environmental research organization, places the cost of making tar sands operations carbon neutral between $1.76 and $13.46 per barrel. With oil prices holding around $60 per barrel, the industry could take on those costs and still be profitable. Allowing tar sands developments to keep current subsidies in exchange for carbon neutrality would be a win-win solution - one that would result in a Canadian oil industry that leads the world sustainable business, while ensuring their long-term profitability in the face of a looming environmental crisis for which they are largely to blame.
Dion won the Liberal leadership on the strength of his environmental platform, and that same platform will form the policies that the Liberals bring to voters. The tar sands industry would do well - both on the bottom line, and in the public eye - by supporting a plan that allows it to keep millions of dollars in tax breaks while ensuring Canada fulfills its moral obligation to address global warming.
That is value that green washing and climate change denial could never buy.
This week's widely published good news from the environmental front lines was the Brazilian state of Pará's decision to protect 15 million hectares (an area the size of Illinois) of the Northern Amazon.
What was less intensively covered was a report from Peru revealing that their government has now signed away more than 39 million hectares of their remaining Amazon to oil and gas interests (an area equal to the size of California).
Until recently, Peruvian petroleum projects were resulting in massive quantities of contaminated wastewater, totaling 1 million barrels per day, being dumped directly into local rivers. Protests by aboriginal groups ended with new agreements to inject the contaminated water back underground as oil is extracted, but the threats to the water system continue.
Of the 39 active operations currently underway, all but 8 were launched in past three years. That rate of expansion is expected to continue, and will inevitably cause more water diversions, greater deforestation, and increased risks of spills and dumping that will threaten not only local waters, but the lower reaches of the river.
Peru is home to the very source of the Amazon, and any degradation of the river caused by Peruvian oil and gas will be carried down river to impact the health of downstream ecosystems potentially as far as Brazil, undermining more progressive conservation policies currently underway.
Start date: Aug 6, 2006
Lost to date: 48 lbs.
Sometimes, as U.S. Gen. Russell Honore said when he landed in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina to set things straight and get things in order, we just get "stuck on stupid."
I got stuck on stupid yesterday. I know I can't eat anything with maltitol in it. I know this from hard-won experience. I know that even in small quantities--like in a single cookie--it can result in a bad case of rumble-gut at best or nuclear gastric meltdown at worst.
Yesterday, one cookie, one nuclear maltitol meltdown. Minus 3-1/2 pounds in a day.
Hey, I think I've found a new diet aid! Forget Milk of Magnesia! Forget eating loads of fiber! Just eat a cookie!
Sheesh.
Note to self: You cannot eat the "Outrageous Oatmeal Cookie" from Nutritious Creations. Don't ever order it again.
Today I met up with Lane and Jason again for coffee, and as is the way when I run on at the mouth, I forgot what time it was (or even that things like time and deadlines exist). Consequently I overshot my parking entitlement by a full hour and a half.I walked to the car expecting that I would have a ticket, and having reconciled myself to the pain of paying for it. Still, tickets in Kiwi-land
I don't know what your doing this weekend but I hope to get away for a while...Short break from Lakeland.....
I have been accepted as a mentor for the Hike For Discovery program's 2007 summer season. Not many details yet, but we'll be hiking in Yosemite this year. I guess its time to start planning Drink for Discovery II!
Oz has never been high on my list of places to visit, but when the opportunity for a (nearly) free trip came up, how could an intrepid Cowgirl turn it down? Cowboy had to work Monday and Tuesday, but that left us with two days together, and two days of me and Sydney on our lonesome. Setting aside the minor disaster of the red-eye (6.40am) flight, and the check-in dude joking with us that if we
In an interesting follow-up to last weeks news of the National Science Teachers Association's rejection of 50,000 free copies of An Inconvenient Truth, ScottishPower, a major windfarm developer and operator of a coal fired power plant, has stated that they are "prepared to commit tens of thousands of pounds" towards ensuring every student in Scotland sees the film.
Granted, a windfarm developer obviously stands to gain from more climate friendly policy, but that ignores the fact that this particular company also stands to be liable for the greenhouse gases produced at their coal fired power plant. That aside, the most interesting part of the story is the response from Scotland's school system and government who, unlike the NSTA, is endorsing and seeking to support the initiative.
"The film certainly puts across a view about how the environment could be affected in the coming years, and climate change is something that is already being looked at in many areas of the curriculum." - David Eaglesham, general-secretary of the Scottish Secondary Teachers Association
"I entirely accept that the environmental issue is moving up the agenda, but I think it would be preferable that it was used as part of the curriculum, rather than taking an one-off, piece-meal approach." - Ronnie Smith, the general-secretary of the EIS teaching union
"(I am in favour of the) principle of greater environmental awareness, provided it is objectively done" - James Douglas-Hamilton, the Scottish Conservative's education spokesman
"We are aware of the film proposal from ScottishPower and are currently considering this." - Scottish Executive spokesperson
Those quotes are in stark contrast to the NSTA's response, in which they hid behind policy while stating "that the association cannot endorse any outside organization's products and/or messages to its members", and that accepting the DVDs would place "unnecessary risk upon the [NSTA] capital campaign, especially certain targeted supporters," one of whom is long time global warming denier and misinformation funder Exxon-Mobil.
Certain individuals and members of the NSTA were outraged at the anger directed at the organization for following its stated policy, while at the same time its work supporting students and teachers was ignored. Unfortunately for the NSTA and its members they took the hit for a corruption so widespread that people often do not see it for what it is.
When science educators reject free, scientifically sound resources while openly accepting money from corporations who actively support propaganda that flies in the face of the best principles of science we all have a problem. Sooner or later that conflict of interest cannot help but filter down into the minds of the students that NSTA members are responsible for educating.
Regardless of the good work they have done, the NSTA is facing a needed wake up call. A step in the right direction would be for them to start looking at what education leaders in other nations are doing.
In the meantime, I'm sure the team behind An Inconvenient Truth will be speaking to science teachers in Scotland. It sounds like they could make use of some free DVDs.
Authorities confirmed in a press conference they had found the body of CNET editor James Kim at 12:03pm today in the Big Windy Creek basin. Kim and his family were stranded for 7 days due to losing their way in a snow storm. James left to try and find help at 7:45am on Saturday saying he would be back later that afternoon. He never returned. Authorities were noticably emotional during the
Panasonic has become the first plasma TV manufacturer in the US market to feature lead-free plasma display panels.
Leveraging a new technology that eliminates the need for lead oxide glass, the electronics giant reports that they have been able to remove all of the roughly 70 grams of lead that go into the manufacture of a typical 37" screen. Spread across their production line, the new screens will result in the worldwide reduction of close to 300 metric tons of lead – the approximate weight of two 747 commercial airliners - each year.
The announcement was praised by The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), with their senior scientist, Noah Horowitz, stating “NRDC is very supportive of Panasonic’s longstanding record of consistently delivering some of the most environmentally friendly products in the market. Panasonic’s leadership in this area is noteworthy and we challenge the rest of the TV industry to implement similar improvements to their products.”
For those purchasing a flat screen monitor this Christmas, check out Panasonic's product line and pick up a copy of An Inconvenient Truth as a first watch.
For those who can catch it today, Al Gore will be on The Oprah Winfrey Show. Visit Oprah's site for a video preview as well as tips you can bring into your own home to help stop global warming. You can also check your local listings for show times here.
Starting date: Aug. 6, 2006
Lost to date: 45 pounds
How much is enough? One of the lures of the low-carb WOL is the promise of life without portion control. No calorie counting. Keep the carbs low and you can't help but lose. Of course, even the esteemed Dr. A recognized that there are limits, and that calories count. But the much-touted "metabolic advantage" meant they don't count quite as much as they would seem to on the surface.
The real metabolic advantage, of course, is that you aren't as hungry on LC, and it's easier to feel satisfied. But there are some of us, and I, unfortunately, am one of them, who just can't lose on 1,500 calories or more a day--regardless of our weight, and regardless of how low our carb count. Might it come off eventually? The mathematics of the situation would say yes. But so slowly that few of us--or at least me--would have the patience to stick with it.
So I cut back. I try to listen to body cues--eat when I'm hungry and stop when I'm not. It's not an easy thing to do after years of binge eating.
I realized as I woke up at 2 a.m. and couldn't go back to sleep that it wasn't insomnia keeping me awake--it was hunger. I ate very little yesterday because I wasn't hungry; at 2 a.m., I'm suddenly starving.
I think I've got the signal thing down; now, I need to work on my timing.
·
Tips
On Saturday, Stéphane Dion became the unlikely winner of a Liberal leadership race where youth and a progressive new vision took centre stage over old school Liberal cronyism.
That assessment may seem both lofty and harsh, but the uncomfortable truth facing both Michael Ignatieff and Bob Rae is that they surrendered early leads with both the public and Liberal party members because they sacrificed their campaign’s early message of renewal and change by revealing themselves to be more interested in Liberal power than a change in the status quo.
Meanwhile, the Liberal machinery did its work as it has for decades as the establishment lined its support behind the two front runners. But with typical Liberal arrogance, everyone ignored the fact that Dion and Kennedy carried more combined support than either one of the front runners, and baselessly assumed that the votes from the third and fourth place candidates would spill upward into their camp. When Gerard Kennedy emerged to throw his support behind Dion they didn't even see it coming.
Kennedy could have stayed in the race through another vote. He may have succeeded in gaining ground on Dion. But both Dion and Kennedy were running for more than victory. Dion table a daring and uncompromising and environmental platform, while Kennedy remained committed to renewal within the party. Both never flagged in their values or their platform while lesser candidates did.
And so when Kennedy threw his support in with Dion, it meant a renewal truer than most would have predicted - one that brought together the demands of young Liberals clamouring for change with a new and growing Canadians zeitgeist of environmental consciousness.
Too lofty of praise? Hardly. The election of Stéphane Dion was a full expression of the values of Canadians who have been saying for a decade that the time of Liberal arrogance and cronyism must end, and that it is the environment that will ultimately define our future prosperity. Dion’s platform most fully expressed those progressive values of renewal and sustainability, and he will get the chance to bring those values to the voters.
The question now is, will Dion will make a legacy of those values? or fall into a long line of Liberal leaders who paid them no more than momentary lip-service? We will find out soon enough.
Start date: Aug. 6, 2006
Lost to date: 43 lbs
It was a perfect meal, and I refuse to feel guilty about it. Saturday brunch at Commander's Palace, a jazz combo strolling through the dining room, providing the soundtrack of "Way Down Yonder in New Orleans," "Bye, Bye Blackbird," and other tunes. The bustle of black-clad waiters and the clink of fine china. Even a photographer from Southern Living magazine wending his way through the tables, taking shots for an upcoming feature to run around Mardi Gras time.
First course was the soup-sampler trio, a triad of white china cups filled with today's selection--corn and crab bisque; turtle soup with a generous dollop of sherry; and the piece de resistance, a sublime duck and oyster stew. The main course: tournedos of beef lying atop a bed of seasoned mashed potatoes and covered with caramelized onions, drizzed with sherry. And the finale of all finales, piping hot bread pudding souffle topped with a delicately rich whiskey sauce.
Carbs be damned for one day--it doesn't get much better than this.
Speaking of carbs, how did I do? Well, I ate no-carb breakfast and dinner, and I only ate half of the potatoes. I still figure I had about 2,000 calories and 162 carbs for the day. Then it was right back to low carb business as usual.
Happy birthday, mom.
The name "hopscotch" is a compound of "hop" and "scotch", meaning "scratched line", occurring first in 1789 and becoming common in the 19th century. There are many other forms of hopscotch played across the globe. In Malaysia, it is known as ting-ting or ketengteng. In Brazil it is known as Amarelinha, in many Spanish-speaking countries, it is known as Rayuela......its amazing how games bring the world together!!
As reported before, James Kim and family are missing, here is a video of some of his work. I pray he and his family are safe.
I just wanted to take a moment and tell you what you can expect from mattbthompson.com from now on.First of all, video-podcasting is much more difficult than I imagined. Well, at least doing it well is. In lieu of that, video casts will be few and far between. Sorry. However, this will free up more time for me to write more articles and so forth, which I can do in about a 1/4 of the time it
Audio
Soul Brothers – Bayeza – Network
Oliver Mtukudzi – Rugare rwamangwana - Network
Abassi Allstars – Favi rock dub – Deep Root
The Prophets – Falling Babylon – Blood & Fire
Winston McAnuff – Ugly days – Makasound
Derrick Morgan – Great musical battle - Makasound
Noiseshaper feat. Wayne martin – Moving together – Echo beach
Ranking Joe – Shaka Zulu – M Records
Boubacar Traore – Adieu Pierette – World Music Network
Orchestra Rail Band de Bamako – Mali Cebalenw - World Music Network
Disciples – Imperial stepper – Uncivilized World
Bush Chemists – Foot step dub - Uncivilized World
Marcus Enochson - For you to see (w/ Masaya [Tiger Stripes Remix dub] - Sonar Kollektiv
Inflitrator - The Fugitive from Tibet (Healing) - Underground Resistance
Mad Mike Vocals by Atlantis - Chaos and Order - Underground Resistance
Depeche Mode - Everything Counts (OLiver Huntemann & Stephen Bodzin dub) - Mute
Solomon Linda's Original Evening Birds - Mbube - Rough Guide Rgnet - Rgnet
Beruit - The Gulag orkestar - 4AD -
Gruff Rhys - Candylion - Rough Trade
M Ward - Magic Trick - 4AD
The Rogers Sisters - Never Learn to cry - Too pure - Pure
Tapes 'n Tapes - omaha - XL
The Royals - Make Believe - Tamoki-Wambesh-Dove
Winston Jarrett - The Sleeping in the park - Tamoki-Wambesh-Dove
Dub trees (featuring brother culture - don't want to lose you - CDR
Here you go...
I'm stuck in SEA waiting for the red eye back home. Its going to be at least an hour late leaving SEA for ATL. I've been up since 5:20 AM, so waiting any longer (its 11 PM now, we won't be leaving until 12 AM or so...) is really testing my patience...
W00t!
I was quoted in the WSJ today! A reporter contacted me based on this post about Mary Chocolatier in Brussels. The article came out today and I'll put up a copy as soon as I get a PDF online. That may be a day or two, since I'm currently waiting for a red-eye flight from SEA to ATL...
(Normally I'd link to the article online, but the WSJ extracts a ransom from web users to see articles... bastards.)
CNET has now posted a story of one of their own that has gone missing. As I posted yesterday, editor and contributor to CNET, James Kim and family have been missing since last weekend. Here is some more information from the CNET article."They're searching roads that are not well-traveled and that have been snowed in" from a weekend storm, Inspector Kim Lewis of the San Francisco Police
Well its the first day of December. I wasn't really sure what I was going to blog for Dec...and I'm still not sure, i thought I would start the month off with a little kid photography. My dad owns a preschool and most of these kids are from his preschool. Most of them come from broken families. At the time I didn't have anything in common with them, but shortly after i finished this project my family went through a divorce. A lot of the feelings you see in these pictures came out in me. There is a little bit of sadness mixed in with a lot of hope... may you find hope during these times, and may your family keep those Christmas traditions alive.
ALPHA & OMEGA
CITY OF DUB
A&O RECORDS CD
Any self-respecting UK dub fan would immediately check this sound as emanating from the twin towers of Alpha & Omega, typically a pounding bass that just won’t stop thumping you in the chest whilst a melodica flutters around somewhere above your head. This time Christine and John come with a mainly showcase set with dub after the vocal, featuring a host of roots talent. Coz Safari’s Marching Warriors is a globalised update of Aswad’s anthemnic Warrior Charge with John’s melodica replacing the martial horns; regular collaborator Jonah Dan pops up twice, first off on the set’s toughest track, Nah Lef The Truth, a meditation on keep to the straight and narrow on housed in a monstrous full-on steppers lurch then with the more reflective This Is My Prayer. Amongst the many others here are old friend Nishka and one of the key voices of new roots consciousness in the UK, Gregory Fabulous.
BASS CLEF
A SMILE IS A CURVE THAT STRAIGHTENS MOST THINGS
BLANK TAPES CD
A rough analogue miscegenation rather than a smooth digital fusion sounds oh so much more appealing these days, and so it is for Bass Clef aka Ralph Cumbers another Bristolian ex-pat relocated to the East End via the Blank Tapes people. Whether the 4-track, cassette deck, drum machine, vintage synth and valve compressor that produced this music is down to choice or economics matters not as the end result stands out from a lot of its contemporaries who might be in the same area. The sparseness of the mix gives a spiky edge to the sound; Bass Clef uses both trombone and Theremin on stage. There’s a cheeky opening sample on the first track, Cannot Be Straightened, a sped up capture of Wong Chu the DJ from the Wailers version of Keep On Moving provides the song title and inspires the album title. Followed by a tune about the sound of the tune Subwoofer Loveletter the Eight Zero Eight a purple Def Jam throwback to 1984 convinces us we are in ironically educated hands.
EASY STARS ALLSTARS
RADIODREAD
EASY STAR RECORDS CD
After their hugely successful roots style re-versioning of Pink Ffloyd, Dub Side of the Moon, the Easy Star boys were left with the challenge of ‘what next’? Radiohead’s OK Computer must have seemed am immediately appealing choice, especially with the pre-packaged re-titling. Initially the sonic chasm between reggae and Radiohead seemed unbridgeable with the switches of time signatures and twisted chord changes, so this follow-up turned out to be hard work. However having Horace Andy open proceedings by wrapping his honeyed tones around Airbag and making it sound like a fifties ballad, the running order is maintained and so too are the quality of the inputs with contributions from Toots and the Maytals, Morgan Heritage, The Meditations, Israel Vibration, Sugar Minott and Frankie Paul. It’s Airbag that’s the standout track with a guitar meets cello riff and extended discomix with a dubwise reprise at the album’s close. Not being familiar with the blueprint was not too advantageous as some of the tunes seem to merge, or maybe that was due to the sheer challenge of the task that faced the arranger.
GRAVIOUS
WORMSIGN
SCUBA 12"
Hotflush is an internal splinter from Scuba coming with Scottish producer, Gravious, working a manipulated signal pulse running from start to end of the mix Hailing from north of the border, he's bringing a fresh sound to the dubstep marketplace mixing electronic sounds with the reggae influence of more contemporary dubstep producers. Wormsign defies accepted structural protocols and hits you in the chest with bass from the very first beat. Switching up rhythms and emphasis, adding echoed snares and searing hats, Gravious shows why he's attracted so much attention on this one. The drum roll and turn that kicks off the beats of Monolith suckers an expectation of a little roots reggae number before quickly dropping into the now established dubstep convention of a repetitive cycle of repeated riffs, but that’s relieved by a snappy fall into amen-style breaks only to return to the previously established groove. It’s this unrestrained playing with structure that rescuing dubstep from an early demise.
KEITH HUDSON
ENTERING THE DRAGON
TROJAN FAN CLUB CD
It’s not into this album before it becomes clear that this is a true sonic genius at work. These days Keith Hudson’s reputation is unfairly tainted with the odd critic not rating him as a vocalist but even weighing his accomplishments as producer alone would legitimately place him high in the super league of reggae’s elite. Trojan follow up 2004’s essential The Hudson Affair with one strictly for hardcore devotees, the original 1972 ‘Entering The Dragon’ LP with an added seventeen rare sides lifted from obscure collectors 45’s. The set opens with the title track, actually ‘Blackbelt Jones’, with an uncredited DJ – sounding a little like Big Youth – delivering a blaxploitationesque toast taking it to a lower lyrical level that Isaac Hayes’ ‘Shaft’!; this is followed by Soul Syndicate’s instrudub version to ‘Riot’ the rhythm that fed UK hiphop for a few months back in 1988 and one of Hudson’s most wigged-out solo efforts, the tortured off-key ‘Too Possessive And You Know It Baby (aka Fly Away)’ with spliffed-up spoken intro and dubbed vocal, after that comes a harmonica version of ‘Melody Maker’. This level of variety and invention continues for thirty tracks.
RANKING TOYAN
GHETTO MAN SKANK
ROOTS CD
Toyan, graduate of Killamanjaro Sound, whose gravely voice belied relative
Youth, formed one of the select band of pre-rap bad boy deejays in early
Eighties Jamaican dancehall. He owed his first success to producer Henry
‘Junjo’ Lawes who introduced him to a wider market in the UK with the
Greensleeves album How The West Was Won, after which he added to his
name the then ultimate reggae accolade of ‘Ranking’! His biggest album
however came via his association with fellow DJ and Jah ‘Nkrumah’ Thomas who produced Ghetto Man Skank, full of ‘bimmmms!’, ‘bong-diddleys!’ and ‘ribbitttts!’ and slow bouncing riddims from the Radics this is one of the classic DJ walk albums – in other words, stand still walking arms swinging is the only cool dance for this music. The language and rhythms are pure nostalgia for fans of the era with Nice It Up, delivered on Linval Thompson’s Six Babylon, the bragging Pallaving Spree where Toyan lays waste to Brixton in company of Little John and Two Bad DJ Afi Talk in combination with Jah Thomas on the riddim of his Entertainment hit. Watch out for sporadic appearances in finer vinyl emporiums of his excellent final album Hot Bubble Gum cut for George Phang in 1984, after which his career faded before his murder in 1991.
ROOTS RADICS
MEET KING TUBBY & SCIENTIST IN A DUB EXPLOSION
ROOTS CD
More archival material from the tape vaults of Jah Thomas’ Midnight Rock label, this time thirteen early eighties vintage dubs drawn from the artillery of the awesome Roots Radics mixed in the main by Scientist at King Tubby’s studio, with a few tracks from the hands of the dubmaster himself. As Jah Thomas explains in the notes, usually three passes would be worked on a mixdown and as this was a time when fingers on the faders were the main mix tool then usually there were multiple versions of the tune on tape; consequently few of these tracks have appeared before in this shape. Just go straight to king Tubby’s Cloud Dub for a masterclass on the art of dub where every move is clear, no tricks or efx, just the desk manipulating the pure drum and bass bed around Singie Singie’s vocal lines. The BPMs of these tunes make it much more of a smoker’s affair than a jump up dance thing, but there when there are plenty of below par Radics albums on the market to seduce the uninitiated its good to have one that lives up to its name.
RUSKO
SNES DUB / HORNS CRU / TRU POWWA
DUB POLICE 12”
SNES uses the same ascending/descending arpeggio device as Skream’s Midnight Request Line raised on high over a skipping steppers pegged by a sinking bassline, but according to the label it’s all from a bedroom in suburban Leeds, the virus is indeed mutating. The Dub Police label was set up in London last year to provide a platform for dubstep inflected experimentation and its good to hear the rhythms linking back to check techno tendencies and introduce a warmer side, especially on the Horns Cru cut which is exactly what it implies. Tru Powwa bangs down on the heavy button with an unstoppable maxed out bass reverb loop ploughing on regardless as bits and bobs of gameboy diversions pop in and out.
ADRIAN SHERWOOD
BECOMING A CLICHÉ / CLICHÉ DUB
REAL WORLD 2CD
For old-time On U Sound heads and those more recently seduced by Sherwood’s 80’s vintage outputs of the dubwise variety, best pass by the vocal set here and head straight to the versions. Not that the second solo album from the one time dub wunderkind is not a magnificent thing but those old devotees of the AMS live mix sets looking for just one more fix will have no need to further forlorn dawn searches as the first half of Cliché Dub is as crazily inventive as anything in the back catalogue that EMI has been vaguely threatening to reissue over the past year or so. Back to the album proper and Sherwood is joined by, or as the album painful artwork may have us believe, supported by, old sufferer Mark Stewart and Jah Sufferer Denis Bovell, Jah Kingdom’s Bim Sherman and reunited friend Scratch, albeit in virtual form. The shiny new rhythms are inspired by Sherwood’s immersion in dancehall over the last few years and directly from recent collaborations with Jazzwad and Sly & Robbie, so it’s a definite and welcome strike away from the primary roots sounds of old. But one can’t help conjecture what Sherwood would be capable of given his proven invention, if he were to ‘lose’ all these old and new pals on his next sonic expedition.
VARIOUS
LIFE GOES IN CIRCLES – SOUNDS FROM THE TALENT CORPORATION 1974 TO 1979
PRESSURE SOUNDS
Tommy Cowan is forever immortalised in reggae history as producer of Israel Vibration’s 1979 debut ‘The Same Song’, he later went on to initiate Reggae Sunsplash. As usual that’s only half the story, back in 1974 he formed the Talent Corporation to nurture local talent in Jamaica with the intention of obtaining as much exposure for its artists that was normally afforded international artists. Certainly the range and quality of the tunes gathered here argue that Cowan certainly had impeccable taste, and although it’s sad to say most of the material only became local hits their re-presentation here is a revelation. Devon Iron’s ‘Jerusalem’ is as strong as anything he cut for the Upsetter (there’s an alternate 7” available too), the Abyssinians ‘Love Comes and Goes’ is just stone beautiful and with its version attached the blissful horn section can stand alone sans efx. Dennis Brown has the title track with the stereo mix only separating the voice and backing track on headphones, ostensibly a mess but here an emphasis on what a really great vocalist he was. The album closes out with Roman Stewart reggae-lite ‘Hit Song’ but with the bonus of Dillinger’s earnestly amusing ‘Natty Sing A Hit Song” moving into an inventive dub with vamped horns, organ and vocal returns. The artwork is a little cheeky though – a straight lift of Freddie Hubbard’s ‘Hub Cap’ on Blue Note.
VARIOUS
JAMAICA TO TORONTO – SOUL, FUNK & REGGAE 1967 – 1974
LIGHT IN THE ATTIC RECORDS CD
The Kingston/Toronto connection has been referenced previously in this column, especially from the work of keyboard king Jackie Mittoo who relocated to North America for a spell. This new label however is solely dedicated to the retrieval of music produced from those connects. Their first issue concentrated on the reggae and funk output of Wayne McGhie whereas this new one focuses on a disparate series of artists operating in largely in the post r’n’b soul era, so although we have Sam Cooke and Otis Redding wannabes the whole thing turns out to be fresh, raw and fun. Amongst the reggae highlights are Noel Ellis, Alton’s boy, a little lightweight compared to his pa but the discomix of Memories is a desolate rumination on separation on a Wackies’ style rhythm bed with a deep bass drop; also the Johnny Osbourne produced instrumental African Wake from 1974 later to be voiced in New York as Jah Jah Children. On the soul side there’s the dead centre Northern Soul attack of Eddie Spencer's 'If This Is Love (I'd Rather Be Lonely)' and the hilarious Jo-Jo And The Fugitives' unknown break-beat monster, 'Chips-Chicken-Banana Split'.