“Miss, where you from?”
“What is your native place?”
“Where you come from?”
“Country?”
This is the most common question that a backpacker is asked. I am asked where I am from (“well, you're clearly not from here, missy...”) on a daily basis and the question ranges from polite and friendly to mildly accusitory, asked with a leering eye.
“Canada.”
But I find that lately the moment that the word has escpaed my lips I feel like a fraud. Am I really from Canada anymore? The answer seems too limiting. I haven't been home in 10 months. I lived in Mumbai for part of that time. My accent is changing. And is Vancouver even in Canada? It doesn't snow and we are all left wing commies. Aren't we like, our own thing? I feel like I should add this information into my answer, but that would just confuse matters. So, Canada it is.
My brain is always like “Wait – don't you wanna know what part!?” because to a Canadian that is of tantamount importance. A Vancouverite is a very different animal than an Edmontonian, a Montrealer, a Haligonian (from Halifax – the coolest demonym ever) and especially from a Torontonian. I think that some of us have more in common with the closest American cities than to eachother, other than the weak thread of patriotism, politeness and pride in our free health care. Some cities even have full blown rivalries. So, if was going to answer truthfully the response should be “Vancouver – in Canada.”
But no, they do not care about your city. Just country – and Canada is an acceptable answer. “Canada – very good country! Very Cold!” Sometimes in small villages people have no idea what or where Canada is. “England?” they will respond.
I sigh. “Near America.”
“Oh! Amereeka!!” Suddenly I am much more exciting.
In India the word Canada would really confuse matters. “Bangalore?” people would ask, confused. Not as confused as I was, until I pieced together the fact that B'lore is in Karnataka, and they speak a Dravidian language called Kannada....
Do Blogs Steal Content or Improve News Stories?
If you ever quote news stories here in your blog (as I do), you should take the time to read today's Opinionator blog at the New York Times, titled "Steal This Professionally Reported Content," in which a recent controversy discussed all over traditional media and the blogosophere is dissected in succinct form (with money quotes from all interested parties and informed commentators).
How to pronounce Ghoti
WHAT'S UP WITH THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE?!
pronouncing-english
Woork | Web design,tutorials,resources ansd inspiration
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Interesting Code Highlighters for blogs and websites
SyntaxHighlighter
Quick Highlighter
FV Code Highlighter
Source Code Highlighter online tool
Highlight.js
10 Useful code snippets for web developers
Woork's Follow Friday List - Issue 01
Tag followfriday twitter
15 Awesome tutorials and resources for web developers
In Good Health ?
I know I am wishing for the impossible--something along the lines of wanting politics not to be political. I understand there is never going to be a candidate in office that everyone agrees with, supports, and rallies for in unison.
And yes, I am a democrat, a liberal, and an Obama supporter. I voted for this man for president, and I do have faith in him. But, when he makes a decision I don't agree with, or a mistake, I won't fall silent. I hope for the best, but I don't expect perfection.
The issue of health care is one close to my heart for a variety of reasons. I have gone without insurance at times after layoffs, unable to afford a $600+ per month COBRA payment. Friends of mine have children and family members with serious illnesses and live in fear of a missed payment to their insurance companies, knowing they would never be able to get insurance again. And almost every time I visit my local pharmacy to pick up my prescriptions, I watch senior citizens flinch when they hear the total owed for medicine they can't live without, or carefully count pennies (literally) to pay for a few day's worth of medicine at a time. On top of all that, the media and BOTH sides of the government have so exaggerated or underestimated the number of people living in the US without insurance, that it is impossible to know the truth. But, I am betting the true number is startling, if not staggering. And many of those uninsured are children.
Those of us that get insurance through our employers may feel a little uneasy at the thoughts of government run health care. I know that I do. However, I know the system is broken. I know that the big pharma companies (who now advertise their drugs directly to consumers!) and huge insurance companies have been calling the shots for awhile now. My doctor cannot always make decisions about the care I need without consulting what my insurance will cover.
Do I think the proposed health care reform will solve everyone's problems? No. Do I think it will cause some problems? Probably. But, we do have to do something.
So, back to my wish. I wish that I would stop hearing sound bites that try and scare people to death about Obama's proposed reform. I wish that instead of attacking the president on personal issues, such as his birthplace, that those opposed to his plan would try and bring other ideas to the table. I wish that maybe just for this one issue, everyone could leave their party affiliations at the door, and try to create something that works. I know, I know, silly me. I want our government to work together.
Knowing that our government can't even work together on the initial reform plans doesn't give me any more confidence about them running our health care, but I can't say I have a lot of faith in our health care system as it is now. My hope is that the reform will be a long-term process that changes along the way to become something better than it is now.
I am still reading, still learning, still trying to find out what is truth and what is fiction about the proposed health care plan. But this issue hasn't been addressed in ages, and I am glad that even with all the fear, gossip, and opposition, that it is at least on the table.
I have never been shy to say what I thought of Bush and the last eight years. And I have attacked his inability to speak publicly with correct grammar more than once. But I didn't use that single argument to support my frustrations with him. I tried to read, do my homework, find out what was true beyond the headline snippets and less than neutral news reporting on both sides. I have also always welcomed debate with my views, and any educated, thoughtful insight I might need to contemplate.
Which is what we all should do--including those currently holding office.
5 Things
Les Fradkin plays Tzar... "Liberty"
Dr. John has instrumentals which are used by L2D2 for computer time music.WIRED : DANGER ROOM
Gallery: Inside Alaska’s Answer to Area 51
Strange New Air Force Facility Energizes Ionosphere, Fans Conspiracy Flames
U.S., Canadian forests fall to beetle outbreak
By Ed Stoddard
MEDICINE BOW NATIONAL FOREST, Wyoming (Reuters) - From the vantage point of an 80-foot (25 meter) tower rising above the trees, the Wyoming vista seems idyllic: snow-capped peaks in the distance give way to shimmering green spruce.
But this is a forest under siege. Among the green foliage of the healthy spruce are the orange-red needles of the sick and the dead, victims of a beetle infestation closely related to one that has already laid waste to millions of acres (hectares) of pine forest in North America.
"The gravity of the situation is very real," said Rolf Skar, a forest campaigner with Greenpeace.
The plague has cost billions of dollars in lost timber and land values and may thwart efforts to combat climate change, as forests are major storing houses of carbon, the main greenhouse gas blamed for global warming.
The beetle outbreak, which has taken a lesser, but mounting, toll on spruce trees, could make it that much tougher to meet the ambitious target to reduce U.S. carbon emissions by 17 percent of 2005 levels by 2020 and 83 percent by 2050.
That is laid out in a climate bill that narrowly passed in the U.S. House of Representatives and waits Senate debate.
Many researchers have also linked the infestation in the U.S. and Canadian West to climate change, notably a dearth of winters cold enough to kill the voracious little bugs.
"Pine beetle infestations are cyclical in nature and have been occurring for thousands of years but what is making things worse now is the effects of global warming," said Skar.
"If you don't have the real cold extremes to kill off the larvae under the bark you are going to have extreme infestation events," he said.
CARBON FOOTPRINT
In the Medicine Bow National Forest, scientists are getting a first-hand look at the carbon implications.
The forest is home to the U.S. Forest Service's Glacier Lakes Ecosystem Experiments site in a tower with gadgets that, among other things, examine the "carbon flux" of the forest.
The site was established a decade ago, before the spruce beetle infestation, and gives scientists a unique chance to measure the changes to carbon storage wrought by the insects.
"We are getting readings here every half hour," said Colorado-based U.S. Forest Service scientist Mike Ryan, shouting above the wind as he pointed to an instrument that measures carbon. This gas analyzer resembles a small space capsule on the end of horizontal a metal pole.
In the terminology of trees and carbon, a healthy forest is a net "sink," with trees storing carbon as they grow. When they die and rot they "emit" carbon back into the atmosphere, and so a dead or dying forest becomes a "net source" of greenhouse gas, meaning it emits more carbon dioxide than it stores.
Ryan said the net carbon storage in this patch of woods is about half of what it was three or four years ago. In another three or four years, he believes it will become a net source.
A SEA OF GREEN TURNS ORANGE
This scenario is being replayed across the West. In Colorado, aerial surveys show that from 1996 to 2008 Colorado lost almost 2.5 million acres (1 million hectares) of pine forest to the beetle outbreak, Wyoming 677,000 acres and South Dakota 354,000 acres.
Over the same period of time, the spruce beetle, which has also ravaged forests as far north as Alaska, took out 374,000 acres of spruce trees in Colorado and 340,000 in Wyoming.
That cumulative total of over 6 million acres (2.5 million hectares) is an area larger than Israel or South Africa's Kruger National Park.
Farther north in Canada, the pine beetle has attacked trees over an area of about 39 million acres (14.5 million hectares) in British Columbia since the 1990s.
The sheer scale of the damage can be seen northwest of Denver in Colorado's Yampa Valley. Vast tracts of formerly evergreen forest now have huge splashes of orange running through them.
According to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization, a third of the United States' land area is covered in forest but it is only expanding at a rate of about 0.1 percent per year.
Under "cap and trade" provisions in the U.S. climate bill, additional forest growth may be encouraged through a market mechanism that will allow reforestation efforts by landowners and other groups to be counted as "carbon offsets."
Such projects could generate cash through "carbon credits" paid by polluters who want to exceed their own emissions caps.
A forest can recover, but that can take decades.
"Most forests will recover the carbon they lose but if the next 50 to 100 years is important we may not have that much time. It's setting back carbon storage efforts," said Ryan.
Forest growth in the United States currently sucks up about 12 percent of the country's greenhouse gas emissions. "That's a big number. To get another 10 percent you would have to convert a third of U.S. agriculture land to forest," said Ryan.
The outbreak has other consequences. It is creating huge fire hazards as it leaves mountains of combustible wood in its wake. In a worrying trend, it also has spread from lodgepole pine to ponderosa pine.
There are expenses for landowners as well.
On his ranch in northern Colorado, mountain realtor Bill McClelland points to a dying tree and says: "A week ago that tree was green. I've lost another one."
In May, he had to cut 476 pines on his property and then have them ground into wood chips -- an expensive operation that is one of the few ways to contain the outbreak. He reckons an infestation will generally shave about 20 percent of the value off a private wood lot or ranch.
Past beetle outbreaks have been stopped by very cold winters but recent winters have not been cold enough.
Another factor scientists attribute to the outbreak is past forest clearance and fires that saw large areas cleared.
Often when this happens, the forest that regrows in its place will have huge patches of trees the same age and this makes them susceptible to a collective attack when they mature at the same time into the older trees that the bugs favor.
The beetles may collectively wreak havoc by nesting and feeding in the trees but they look harmless enough as individuals, not least because they are so tiny.
At Medicine Bow, Ryan points to a few writhing in a glass jar that have been trapped on the trunk of a spruce tree.
"Until we get a big cold spell they are going to go on until they have nothing to eat," he said.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment