Categories
Economics Environment Politics & government Pop culture Sci-fi

[524] Of The Economist and oil

Exactly a year ago, Paul Krugman wrote an article entitled The Oil Cunch. He started off with:

Before the start of the Iraq war his media empire did so much to promote, Rupert Murdoch explained the payoff: “The greatest thing to come out of this for the world economy, if you could put it that way, would be $20 a barrel for oil.” Crude oil prices in New York rose to almost $40 a barrel yesterday, a 13-year high.

Rose almost to $40 per barrel; about a year later, it is hovering more or less above the $50 per barrel benchmark. There was a time when lots of people thought $50 per barrel has too much fantasy in it. Now, nobody dare to question the $60 level too much.

The Economist latest edition has oil has its main focus. From one of its articles, it is clear than the team at The Economist doesn’t approve the plan to drill ANWR. The magazine bills such action as “This is mad”, or was it “This is madness”.

I agree so much that this is madness. Drilling the nature reserve in Alaska won’t alleviate the current crisis. The drilling return on investment won’t come immediately and by the time the extraction hit full speed, given the increasing global demand and little sign of slowing demand in the near future, oil from ANWR won’t be able to make a noticeable impact. It won’t make a lasting impact at all.

Believing the act of opening ANWR would relax the oil price is similar to believing one is Superman; able to stop a speeding bullet train by standing in the middle of the track, head to head.

The only solution is renewable energy. Or nuclear. We need to act now. Oil won’t last forever; renewable will.

p/s – I’ve come to a conclusion that The Economist is environmentally-friendly.

pp/s – can you feel it?

Because I do.

Categories
Photography Society

[523] Of anon and $5,000,000

I found out last week that the Alumni Memorial Hall, which houses the University of Michigan Art Museum, is set to undergo a renovation in 2006. According to the project description, the renovation will increase the museum space to more than double.

My take – I sort of hate it but at the same time, the plan looks daring, much like the pyramid at the Louvre. The Art Museum has Roman feeling to it and the plan includes a modern design. There is a model of what the Art Museum would look like after completion in the building lobby.

Despite my possible reservation of what I’d call a clash of the temporal dimension, the plan would probably do lots of good to the area. From my understanding of the building style, passersby would be able to see what’s going on inside the Museum, or at least inside the proposed extension, from the outside. It would give a feeling of openness to the building.Anyway, somebody donated 5 million dollar to the Museum for renovation purpose.

Too much money – that’s all I could say when I first saw it. At least, it is for a good purpose.Lastly, in the Museum, there is this one huge painting – hung on a wall, needless to say – which nothing drawn on the canvas. Just a huge frame, colored with purple painted on it. I stood in front of the painting, trying to figure out what the “work of art” is all about for a moment or two. After that, I asked myself, “why am I staring at a blank framed purple-painted canvas?”

I appreciate art, but what I did is stupidity at its best.

Categories
Personal Photography

[522] Of end of an era

It’s an end of an era; blurgh; cliche; but hey, so sue me.

Caught this while I was freezing to death, sitting right next to a nice girl from nursing school. I’d suppose, being freezed to death encourages conversation.Aha! Should the temperature in Ann Arbor or anywhere else drops to sub-zero all over again, I’ll sit right beside a pretty girl and test this stupid theory of mine.

But seriously, a few days ago, Bob Hunter passed away. He was the founder of Greenpeace and more importantly, he was one of the few people that actually changed how environmentalism works.

Bless him. Thanks to Boris, again, for emailing the news to me.

And hurrah for the yellow and blue.

Categories
Politics & government

[521] Of they finally gave up

But, oh come on. Don’t give up. Please satisfy those rightists’ gut. Else, they’ll keep using absence of evidence doesn’t mean absence of WMD. Logically valid but pathetically unconvincing given the parameters of the real world.

LOL! Several years after the invasion, no WMD yet. And oh, the post-Kuwait weapon doesn’t count because the argument is, the old Iraqi regime had disposed of the WMD, or at least lost the capability to produce any decent weapon before Bush made the false allegation.

The war has some positive externalities I agree but still, the invasion is illegal. In retrospect, it was amusing seeing Collin Powell presenting doubtful proofs at the Security Council. However, despite the fact Americans were being lied to, quite a number of them reelected Bush into the White House.

Ah, the real world. It couldn’t get any better.

p/s – OMFG! I have to get a copy of Time. (Via).

Fair use

Ann Coulter – undoubtedly, my most hated female figure related to politics – is on the Time magazine. Unfortunately, she is an alum of my school…Go Blue, I supposed. It would have been fantastic if she had attended OSU. I’m just glad that Republican is an endangered species here on campus. Else, who knows who Michigan might produce next.

To hate her, you have to read and listen to her raving. If you’re at least in the center of the political spectrum, trust me, you’ll quickly turn into a left temporarily for the duration of your read. When I first saw her, I said to myself, “who is this? This is worse than O’Reilly!”

I’m off to Borders. Probably I could read it on my way to the airport later today, while listening to my Micro Zen. Micro Zen is sexy, did I tell you that?

Categories
Environment Personal Photography

[520] Of celebrating spring, and a bit of snow

Not 48 hours ago, snow was still falling. Thank goodness for the change of flow. Today was as bright as any summer day could be though some more warmth was in order. Very much excited upon seeing the sun up in the sky, I went for a 2-hour jolly walk in an arboretum in Ann Arbor.

I took about 20 to 30 photos and this is probably my favorite:

I think the photo could have been better if I could take a sip of the sky into the photograph. I’d love to get a second shot of it if time and weather permit me to enjoy another stroll tomorrow.This like the next photo too:

Too bad I couldn’t figure out what’s the best lighting for it. In my opinion, the blue hue is too strong.It has been a long time since I last heard a bird or two sang when I’m still in bed. For the past few days however, hearing the birds singing while it was snowing was rather strange.

A trivia, this freak snow is the latest snowfall in more than 110 years.

“On April 3 and April 4 of 2003, we had an ice storm after temperatures rose to nearly 70 degrees on April 1,” he said. “The biggest snowstorm to ever hit the Detroit area was on April 6, 1886 when 24.5 inches of snow fell and the latest snowstorm we ever had was the five to six inches of snow that fell over May 21 and May 22 of 1883.”

It’s a record. Well, Ann Arbor is not really in the Detroit area (more like New York…) so I don’t know. But, as far as I am concerned, I don’t want any record-breaking event related to snow. I want my spring. Now. Period.