New Albany is one of those suburbs that sprang up quickly in the 1990s, taking the area from rural to developed in a few short years. The town planners left many wooded areas that separate the various developments and give the area a semi-rural feel that ties in well with New Albany’s signature white fences. [...]
Archive for the ‘Environment’ Category
The Road Kill Blues
Posted in Environment, Ohio, tagged Car-Deer Accidents, Deer, Driving, Environment, New Albany, Ohio, Road Kill on January 14, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
The Sounds Of A Summer Night
Posted in Columbus, Environment, Ohio, tagged Columbus, Environment, Family, house and grounds, insects, Ohio, summer on July 15, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
Cousin Jeff is in town, and last night after dinner he, Kish and I sat out on our patio in the darkness, talking. As we chatted, I was struck by how loud the background sounds of a summer evening can be. There was a steady, discernible buzz of different insect noises, led by the high-pitched, [...]
The Spreading Stain
Posted in America, Environment, tagged America, Atlantic Ocean, Environment, Gulf Of Mexico, Gulf Of Mexico Oil Spill on July 2, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
As the oil continues to gush into the Gulf of Mexico, more than two months after the Deepwater Horizon sank, scientists have completed detailed models of ocean currents that predict where the oil will go. It’s not good news for the Atlantic coast of the United States or the Atlantic Ocean generally; the simulation indicates [...]
Four Times (Or Is It Five?) And Counting
Posted in Environment, Politics, tagged Environment, Gulf Of Mexico, Gulf Of Mexico Oil Spill, Politics, President Obama on June 16, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
One of the chief talking points for the Obama Administration about the Administration’s response to the catastrophic oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico seems to be that President Obama has visited the region four times since the spill started. I ask: Why is this considered an important or even moderately persuasive talking point? If [...]
A Welcome Debate
Posted in Environment, Science, tagged climate change, Environment, global warming, Science on June 15, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
The head of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the entity whose reports have been subject to significant criticism lately, says the group now “welcomes” vigorous debate on the science of climate change. Some people may be skeptical of that statement, because it certainly appears that the IPCC and other groups have tried to quash [...]
Presidential Acting And Acting Presidential
Posted in America, Environment, Politics, tagged Acting Presidential, America, Cursing, Environment, Gulf Of Mexico Oil Spill, Politics, President Obama on June 8, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
In an interview broadcast today President Obama said that he talks to experts about the Gulf Oil spill because they can help him decide “whose ass to kick.” Some people have reacted negatively to the President’s use of the word “ass”; others have wondered why the President apparently needs experts to direct him on whose [...]
Wingtips On The Beach
Posted in Environment, Humor, Politics, tagged Environment, Environmental, Gulf Of Mexico Oil Spill, Humor, Politics, President Nixon, President Obama on May 28, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
The picture of President Obama, wearing dress slacks, a white shirt, and dark shoes as he “checked for tar balls” on a Louisiana beach, gave me an unexpected chuckle. I suppose the White House wanted to have a photo op that conveyed in some visible way the President’s concern about the oil spill, but why [...]
The Widening Ripples From The Gulf Oil Spill
Posted in America, Environment, Politics, tagged America, Environment, Gulf Of Mexico, Gulf Of Mexico Oil Spill, Politics, President Obama on May 24, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
The Deepwater Horizon experienced a blowout and caught fire on April 20, 2010. (I remember the date because it is my birthday.) Since then, enormous amounts of oil have been spewing, pretty much unabated, into the Gulf of Mexico. Amazingly, more than a month after the incident we seem no closer to plugging the spigot [...]
Pain In The Ash
Posted in Environment, Travel, World, tagged Environment, Iceland Volcano, Travel, Volcanos, World on April 16, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
The news stories about the impact of the ash thrown into the air by the volcano erupting in Iceland are pretty amazing. One volcano, located on a somewhat isolated, relatively sparsely populated island nation, has single-handedly disrupted air travel to and from Europe and has made it tremendously difficult to reach the British Isles. The [...]
Coal Curse
Posted in America, Environment, Ohio, Work, tagged America, Coal, Coal Mining, Environment, Natural Resources, Ohio, West Virginia, Work on April 6, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
The tragic mine accident that has killed 25 West Virginia miners and left another four unaccounted for and trapped far below the surface is just another reminder of the curse of coal. In southeastern Ohio, eastern Pennsylvania, and West Virginia, coal is an abundant natural resource that has been a staple of the economy for [...]
Russell Webner, “Oil Person”
Posted in Art, Environment, Family, Humor, Science, tagged Art, Environment, Family, global warming, Humor, Russell Webner, Science on March 29, 2010 | 1 Comment »
Occasionally I run searches on friends and family members, just to see if anything interesting pops up. Tonight a search of Russell’s name showed that he is one of the people in the “Carbon Capture Report,” a news monitoring service of the University of Illinois that focuses on climate change issues. That’s right — the [...]
Worms Of The Earth, And On The Driveway
Posted in Environment, Humor, weather, tagged Animals, Environment, Humor, weather, Worms on March 12, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
We’ve had a huge snowmelt, and yesterday we got a fair amount of rain. The ground is a soupy, muddy mush, and an an inevitable result we’ve seen the worms come out. On this morning’s walk they were coating the driveway, causing me to tiptoe through them to avoid unnecessary worm-flattening. (I admit that doing [...]
A Hot Topic (Cont.)
Posted in Environment, Politics, Science, weather, tagged Environment, global warming, Politics, Science, weather, World on February 14, 2010 | 1 Comment »
Another article has raised significant questions about the data underlying the global warming hypothesis. In this instance, the questions relate to whether recorded temperatures are accurate gauges of climate trends, or whether they may reflect distorting factors such as surrounding development, changes in locations of measuring devices, and changes in land use. One scientist who [...]
An Ill Wind Blows No Good
Posted in America, Environment, Politics, tagged America, economy, Environment, Politics, stimulus, stimulus bill, stimulus package, stimulus spending, Unemployment on February 14, 2010 | 2 Comments »
The Investigative Reporting Workshop at American University has tracked “stimulus bill” spending on wind power — nearly $2 billion in all — and the results are not pretty. It turns out that nearly 80 percent of the money spent has gone to foreign manufacturers of wind turbines, creating thousands of jobs overseas rather than in [...]
A Hot Topic (Cont.)
Posted in Environment, Politics, Science, weather, World, tagged Environment, global warming, Politics, Science, weather, World on February 7, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
Here’s an article that summarizes some of the latest embarrassing revelations about “global warming” science. I obviously don’t think the entire notion of man-made global warming has been shown to be a house of cards, but the seemingly unending disclosures about sloppy science, phony claims, conflicts of interest, and other chicanery clearly have undercut the [...]
