Chance of Rain

Sherman’s “little friend”

EmilyGreen — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 19:39:02 +0000

When Las Vegas Review-Journal publisher Sherman Frederick assured his own readers yesterday that anyone who posts an article from his newspaper without securing copyright permission “will meet my little friend called Righthaven,” he sounded like a thug, which he clearly intended and enjoyed, but mostly he came off like the kind of fool that has so successfully reduced Las Vegas to one of the most depressed and depressing places in America.

Frederick argued that by using Righthaven, a company suing an ever-expanding array of non-profits, internet bulletin boards and even a local PR firm for unpermitted reproduction of R-J content, he is saving newspapers in an age of rampant internet pilfering.

With saviors like that, who needs a wrecking ball? As held earlier on this site, what Frederick really is doing is rendering R-J content worthless. For a perfect example of how, turn to the paper’s arch rival, the Las Vegas Sun, which…

Let them eat plastic

EmilyGreen — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 15:39:35 +0000

It only looks like a jelly fish. A sea turtle eats a plastic bag. Source: Heal the Bay. Click on the image to be taken to Heal the Bay.

A “closely watched, first-in-the-nation ban on plastic grocery bags was defeated Tuesday night,” reports the Los Angeles Times. “That measure, AB 1998, passed the Assembly in June and had the support of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, but faced a withering and well-financed advertising and lobbying campaign from the plastic bag manufacturing industry.” To keep reading, click here or, for the AP account, here. “Opposition arguments last night were straight out of Lewis Carroll,” writes a disgusted Heal the Bay president and bill co-sponsor Mark Gold in Spouting Off. To read in the Sacramento Bee how the American Chemistry Council, whose members include Exxon, Dow and plastic bag manufacturers, “unleashed a flurry of fresh donations to politicians and assembled teams of high-powered lobbyists” in advance of the vote,…

Maps help

EmilyGreen — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 01:28:03 +0000

Ever wonder how relief workers know where to go when a region’s infrastructure is washed away and millions of refugees are stranded over vast distances? Dutch hydrologist Michael van der Valk sent this link from Hydrology.nl to Mapping Pakistan’s Floods. To see how international agencies are working together to track the water that has now impacted almost 20 million people, click here. To enlarge the UN map above, double click on the image. Thanks to Michael Campana of WaterWired for linking to Feriha Peracha’s heart-breaking account from the Swat Valley, and for in addition to Red Cross further offering this new link to aid organizations at work in Pakistan. From Michael: “Don’t look down on anyone unless you are helping them up.” — Pakistani proverb

September fully loaded

EmilyGreen — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 05:42:49 +0000

Summer heat is late and fiery days are surely ahead in Southern California, so planting season is still months away. However, the number of courses aimed at helping homeowners and facilities managers convert from lawn to less wasteful landscapes ramps up in September. Book now to attend the Pacific Horticulture Society’s “Gardening under Mediterranean Skies” symposium from September 23-26 in Arcadia or click here for a full calendar of region-wide events. If you have an event to include, please send details to emily.green [@] mac.com.

The week that was, 8/22-28/2010

EmilyGreen — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 17:06:23 +0000

Bullets rain on the Swat Valley in a drawing done by one of Feriha Peracha's students school for "Taliban" survivors. August flooding has brought fresh anguish to the already chaotic and deadly region that Peracha remembers as paradisal during her childhood visits. Source: American Public Media's 'The Story.' Click on the drawing to be taken to Dick Gordon's interview with Peracha.

As we remember the tragic delays after Hurricane Katrina hit the Louisiana coast five years ago today, arguably the single most meaningful way that we can mark the anniversary is to help the millions in Pakistan whose livelihoods are being washed away now, who are desperate now.

For a glimpse of the horror being visited on that country by unprecedented monsoonal flooding, and the bewilderment and desperation of the people in the path of the water, there is no better sampling than Dick Gordon’s August 25, 2010 interview with Pakistani psychologist Feriha Peracha…