'Best of TBH Politoons'
Baron Dave Romm
Icebergs!
By Baron Dave Romm
Shockwave Radio Theater
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Sorry, it's been a while since I've updated the files;
been busy with these pictures.
I went to Antarctica last month, and have spent the last month looking at the pictures taken by me and my mother. Digital cameras meant we could take a staggering amount of pictures and not worry about the weight or bulk of film. Icebergs (and ice in general) created a bit of a problem: Who wants to look at ice? But the frozen water took on many forms, with so many colors, that picking and choosing among the iceberg pictures was considerably more difficult than picking choice shots of penguins being cute. But even more than the animals' change in habitat, the change in Antarctic ice will drastically change how everyone in the world lives.
Antarctic Ice Facts: It doesn't rain much in Antarctica, especially in the middle of the continent. Most of Antarctica's 5.4 million square miles is a desert, getting about the same precipitation as the Sahara Desert. At the pole, the snow is formed by ice crystalizing out of the moisture in the air, about 2 inches a year. We can get core ice samples back about 450,000 years, demonstrating the temperature cycles of the Earth. Previously, we were getting core ice samples from Greenland, comprising about 8% of the world's ice, going back 100,000 years. Antarctica has 90% of the world's ice, 70% of the world's fresh water. (Yes, this means that everywhere else in the world combined has 2% of the world's ice.) Core samples clearly show global warming. This core ice data chart from 2000 (note wild upswing in graph at far right).
If all the ice in the Antarctic were to melt, the oceans would rise at least 200 feet. Get that Nevada beachfront property now! The sea ice in the Arctic is declining, but since the arctic ice is floating in water, the sea level won't rise. Due to global warming, the ice in Antarctica is melting faster than anticipated, called an awakening giant by newscientist.com.
The temperature of the Earth is only going to get warmer, thanks in part to the soulless Republicans and the conservative "pro-business" attacks on the environment. The sea level is rising, by a lot, and many coastal states will be largely underwater. Republicans have spent the last thirty years in complete denial of global warming (among other realities), and their miserable failure to understand the world around them will kill and/or displace over a billion people in the next 50 years. Bangladesh and other places under water. Miami and other places underwater and other places. Is global warming causing hurricanes to get worse? And other questions..
The World Factbook - Antarctica from the CIA files. On the map at the top, we were in the area marked Graham Land.
The change in state between ice, water and moisture in the air needs energy. Ice doesn't simply melt at 32 degrees F, nor does water freeze precisely at that point. Factors such as air pressure and the composition of the watermake a difference. Ice takes more energy to melt than water takes to freeze. Even more energy is needed to evaporate or condense ice. One of the reasons ice looks so colorful is the conditions under which is was formed: Temperature, pressure, time. There are more than 80 different kinds of ice (not that I counted).
Anyway, back to the pictures. I've added all 2389 pictures taken by me and/or my mother at Porpoising To Antarctica, a Shutterfly site, which should be done by the time you read this (or soon after). The pictures on Shutterfly are uncropped, unedited and uncompressed. The thumbnails are fairly small, but my pictures average about 850K and my mothers' about twice that. Hope you have a fast connection.
All pictures here taken by Baron Dave or Ethel.
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| Iceberg in Drake Passage Nov. 29, 2005 note birds |
Iceberg in Drake Passage Nov. 29, 2005 note penguins on ice |
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| Iceberg in the mist November 30, 2005 |
Iceberg Cuverville Island Island December 2, 2005 |
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| Iceberg Cuverville Island Island December 2, 2005 |
Penguin on ice Cuverville Island Island December 2, 2005 |
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| Port Lock Roy British Research Station December 2, 2005 |
Kayaking before brash
ice December 3, 2005 |
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| Sunset, Lemaire Channel 11:11pm, December 3, 2005 |
Sunset, Lemaire Channel 11:20pm, December 3, 2005 |
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| Lemaire Channel 11:20pm, December 3, 2005 |
Lemaire channel 11:24pm, December 3, 2005 |
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| Lemaire Channel 11:24pm, December 3, 2005 |
Tabular iceberg December 5, 2005 |
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| Tabular iceberg December 5, 2005 |
Tabular iceberg note shadow of the Endeavour December 5, 2005 |
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Baron Dave Romm is a conceptual artist and a noble of Ladonia with a radio show, a Live Journal demi-blog, a very weird CD collection and an ever growing list of political links. Dave Romm reviews things at random for obscure web sites. You can read all his music recommendations from Bartcop-E , and you can hear the last two Shockwave broadcasts in Real Audio (scroll down to Shockwave). Thanks to everyone who has sent me music to play on the air.
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Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Michael Musto Interviews Alanis Morissette (out.com)
Do you consider yourself strictly heterosexual?
I consider myself heterosexual. I had my years of experimentation, which were very lovely and I'll highly recommend to anyone. I think it's such a beautiful rite of passage to test the waters and get a general sense of who you are and what your preferences are.
ROGER EBERT: Chuck Jones: Three Cartoons (1953-1957)
A film director, like an orchestra conductor, is the lord of his domain, and no director has more power than a director of animated films. He is set free from the rules of the physical universe and the limitations of human actors, and can tell any story his mind can conceive. That's no doubt why Chuck Jones, after creating the characters of the Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote, immediately wrote down the rules of what could and could not happen in their universe. If anything could happen (and it could), the comedy would be lost in anarchy.
Diana Ossana: My time on Brokeback Mountain (advocate.com)
... I felt exhilarated at the opportunity to be actively involved with getting Brokeback Mountain out into the world in a major, major way from the very beginning. Never once did fear enter my mind, not until nearly a year after the screenplay was finished and young Matthew Shepard was found not five minutes from my daughter's apartment in Laramie, Wyo. (She was attending the university there on a basketball scholarship. My fear then was for the safety of my child.) But we remained determined to get our screenplay made into a fine and honest film.
Joey Guerra: Interview with Brokeback Mountain Screenwriters Larry McMurtry & Diana Ossana (afterelton.com)
The epic romance between two humble ranchers at the heart of Brokeback Mountain is striking potent emotional chords with critics. The film is only now opening in wide release, but it has already earned a slew of prestigious nominations and awards.
Kristanna Loken Headlines Dyke-Friendly New Film, BloodRayne (curvemag.com)
"Women are drawn to other strong women," says Loken. "I am the only woman who has ever fought Arnold [Schwarzenegger] in any movie and won. That might turn some women on."
Malinda Lo: Back in the Day: The Lesbian Made-for-TV Movie (afterellen.com)
Long before lesbians came to prime time television as recurring characters, they were featured as sensational draws for movies of the week. A triad of these movies aired in the late 1970s, beginning with The War Widow, which aired on PBS in 1976, and told the story of a woman who falls in love with another woman while her husband is fighting in World War I.
Steven James: Jesus Christ, Man of Mystery
Jesus was too normal-looking to arouse suspicion. He didn't stick out in a crowd. In fact, Judas had to point him out to the soldiers so they could identify him when they arrested him. He was that forgettable. And yet he's the most memorable and influential man in the history of the world.
Meg Cabot: WHY I FLUNKED FRESHMAN ALGEBRA (megcabot.com)
It is with a heavy heart that I announce that we are coming to the end of the First Official Meg Cabot Art Show. I hope you enjoyed this glimpse into my tortured teen existence. Perhaps now people will stop asking why I hated high school so much. Based on what was coming out of my head and hands at that time, I should think it would be perfectly obvious why I hated it so much--because it did not jibe AT ALL with the fantasy world I was living in.
Miss Dennis: The Purple Stapler (irascibleprofessor.com)
There are hundreds of reasons to freak out at work each day. Those who haven't spent much time in a South Bronx high school may think I'm exaggerating or stereotyping. Unfortunately, I'm not. My school's administration is in shambles. The school district is grossly neglecting the civil rights of students with learning disabilities. I have 17-year-old students who are reading and writing at a second grade level. Not because they're dumb (talk with them for a minute and you'll hear their wit), but because they never received help for learning problems ranging from dyslexia to autism. They are among the few teenagers in their situation who haven't dropped out. Two of my brightest students are constantly in and out of sketchy foster homes. They come to school smelling of urine and worse. One of them has learned to deal with neglect by managing to find a way to get high every morning before first period. A 15-year-old girl in my English class still sucks her thumb. She's six months pregnant.
Your Mama's Mad Tedious: Diary of a Bronx Teacher
Hubert's Poetry Corner
OVER AND OUTED
AN OPEN SECRET!
Purple Gene Reviews
'Flavor of Love'
Purple Gene's review of the VH1 Celebrity Reality series special "Flavor of Love: Rub a Dub Flav" (2006)
Directed by Zach Kozek and Robert Sizemore:
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Sunny, windy & nippy for these parts.
Here's a list of the Golden Globes - 2006 nominees.
All the award shows have a dedicated page - they're listed on the BartCop Entertainment Archives page.
No new flags.
Time for U.S. to Leave Iraq
Walter Cronkite
Former CBS anchor Walter Cronkite, whose 1968 conclusion that the Vietnam War was unwinnable keenly influenced public opinion then, said Sunday he'd say the same thing today about Iraq.
"It's my belief that we should get out now," Cronkite said in a meeting with reporters.
The best time to have made a similar statement about Iraq came after Hurricane Katrina, he said.
"We had an opportunity to say to the world and Iraqis after the hurricane disaster that Mother Nature has not treated us well and we find ourselves missing the amount of money it takes to help these poor people out of their homeless situation and rebuild some of our most important cities in the United States," he said. "Therefore, we are going to have to bring our troops home."
Cronkite has spoken out against the Iraq war in the past, saying in 2004 that Americans weren't any safer because of the invasion.
Walter Cronkite
N.Y. Gallery Exhibit
Ashes to Art: The Iraqi Phoenix
Tattered book covers salvaged from the Iraqi Academy of Fine Arts and wax sketches of U.S. bombs blowing up Baghdad are going on exhibit in New York this month in a rare U.S. exhibition of Iraqi artists.
"Ashes to Art: The Iraqi Phoenix" reflects the turbulence in the nation since the March 2003 bombing of Baghdad.
The flames referred to in the title were the reality of those closest to the attack, and nearly all the works include a charred element, said Peter Hastings Falk, curator of the show at SoHo's Pomegranate Gallery, running Jan. 19 to Feb. 22.
Falk had the idea for the exhibit shortly after the U.S. invasion when he read about artist Esam Pasha, who was painting over a mural of Saddam Hussein. Pasha helped him find an ethnically diverse group of Sunni, Shiite and Kurdish artists for the New York exhibit.
Ashes to Art: The Iraqi Phoenix
Lost 'Passport' Proves Independence
Tibet
A passport issued to a Tibetan official before Chinese forces occupied the region in 1950 has been found in Nepal and provides proof of Tibet's former independence, a Tibetan exile group has said.
The passport was issued by the Tibetan government in 1947, Tenzin Tsundue, general secretary of the Friends of Tibet group, said in a statement.
The passport -- a large sheet of traditional Tibetan paper -- was given to then Tibetan Finance Secretary Tsepong Wangchuk Dedhen Shakabpa, who was leading a trade delegation to China, the United States and Britain, it said.
Tibet
Man Solves In 11.13 Seconds
Rubik's Cube
A 20-year-old California Institute of Technology student set a new world's record Saturday for solving the popular Rubik's Cube puzzle, turning the tiled brain-twister from scrambled to solved in 11.13 seconds.
Leyan Lo is part of Caltech's Rubik's Cube Club, a brainy clutch of students that hosted the competition at the Exploratorium museum in San Francisco. Lo's record-setting time came early in the day, among his first five tries in the preliminary rounds.
"It's kind of scary now that I set it, because I have two more (attempts) to go," Lo said humbly afterward. His time of 11.13 seconds broke the previous record of 11.75 seconds, set by Frenchman Jean Pons at the Dutch Open competition last year.
Rubik's Cube
Promoting Indy Racing League
Gene Simmons
Don't be surprised to find a checkered flag soon amid the black-and-white KISS face paint of tongue-wagging bassist Gene Simmons.
Simmons and marketing partner Richard Abramson have signed a deal to promote the Indy Racing League, the open-wheeled circuit announced.
The promotion campaign features a 91-second anthem called "I Am Indy" sung by Simmons, backed by the band BAG.
Gene Simmons
Wealth Of Tributes
Benjamin Franklin
At the Smithsonian, they're planning a tribute to his statesmanship. In London, an exhibit hails his medical contributions. At McGillin's Olde Ale House in Philadelphia, they'll be honouring Benjamin Franklin on his 300th birthday with a celebratory toast.
Is there any place Franklin wouldn't fit in? He was a businessman, inventor, revolutionary, athlete (Franklin is a member of the United States Swim School Association Hall of Fame), diplomat, publisher, humorist, sage, man of destiny and regular guy.
Franklin is the country's beloved eccentric uncle - the old flirt; the quipster with a clever remark for all occasions; the righteous citizen who stands up to authority; the guy who could fix your stove or edit your newsletter.
Benjamin Franklin
Brings Out Arkansas Politicians
Raccoon Dinner
In most places, a politician has to kiss babies in order to succeed. Arkansas politicians have to eat raccoon.
The small east Arkansas town of Gillett doubles its population on the second weekend of every year as candidates and political junkies gather for its annual Coon Supper.
More than 60 years old, the event has become a required stop for anyone seeking or holding political office in Arkansas. Originally started as a fundraiser for high school athletics, it's now the ultimate meet-and-greet for the state's politicians.
Raccoon Dinner
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