bcohen | September 19, 2008"Construction of green roofs grew 30 percent in North America last year," reports the Chicago Tribune.
(image credit: G. Paul Burnett/The New York Times)
White roofs, green roofs, what can I say? My grandfather was a roofer.
The architects and engineers have done a lot with green roofs here at UVA, especially as part of their ecoMOD project (noted in earlier posts). I've had the fortune to advise a few undergrad projects on this and, in great part through those students, learn about the feasibility, benefits, and challenges of green roofs.
Here's the New York Times chiming in a few weeks…
bcohen | September 19, 2008More low technology solutions to energy problems. Just ask guest blogger Jody, he's always going on about this. Or Isaac Newton. He knew something about light.
Here's an L.A. Times story,"To slow global warming, install white roofs," reporting on it.
But why not title it, "To reduce energy use, install white roofs"?
Why not, "To save a billion dollars, install white roofs"?
Why not, "To practice more ecologically sustainable living, install white roofs"?
Why not, "To stand out from your neighbor, install white roofs"?
Why not, "To instigate a conversation on the proper social etiquette…
worldsfair | September 18, 2008Speaking of Sting Rays. I just remembered that a while back, I wrote a humour piece specifically on rays. Here it is reprinted below.
ASSORTED RAYS: RANKED ACCORDING TO COOLNESS
6.
Ray Romano
Is it just me or is this guy too funny? I mean, that thing he does with his TV mom and wife just cracks me up. Plus, he once made $50 million bucks in one season, which is totally cool, and is in no way the reason for putting him on this list. Too bad about the TV kid twins, though - I mean, what's up with their foreheads being so massive? It doesn't look natural.
5.
Cosmic Rays
These are the rays that…
worldsfair | September 18, 2008Just a reminder that Jennifer and I will be hosting drinks at Koerner's pub this evening. We'll be there from about 6pm on. Come on out on Seed's dime - should be fun.
And just in case, you don't know what we look like, Jennifer has her picture on her blog, and I look like this in the hands of a professional photographer (the columns are more apt to be upright in the hands of unprofessional photographers).
To give us a bit of a sense of the "how manys" it would be great if you can leave a comment below, or better yet, place a notch in our FaceBook event page.
worldsfair | September 16, 2008Again with the Canadian politics...
STEPHANE DION: Well, this is a treat - somebody really famous is in the race. Let me be the first to say that having that awesome soprano voice and being able to hit 4 to 5 octave range is just amazing. I mean that song in Titanic was certainly popular - couldn't escape it for a while! Plus it's cool that you have a Las Vegas gig (Vegas rules!). You also have quite the wardrobe which would make you easy to find in the Chamber of the House of Commons.
So what do you think of the liberal candidate?
worldsfair | September 16, 2008As outlined here.
The SCQ is pleased to announce that the winner of the last book contest was Alex Roger's "Astro I Reference Notes." To keep things rolling a little bit, we would like to present the next book up for grabs. This one is called "Follow the Line Around the World" by Laura Ljungkvist.
We think every reader should submit just for the possibility of owning a book who has an author with such a marvelous last name.
Anyway, like before any kind of submission will do, and please send on your good material to tscq@interchange.ubc.ca (deadline is October 15th).
bcohen | September 15, 2008Two things happened last year when we started to get the Sunday Washington Post. One was that I tried to figure out those crossword puzzles. That's not going so well. The other is that I would read the humor column in the back of the magazine by Gene Weingarten. That's turned out better. I thus feel compelled to share what is the definitive statement on why blogging does not straightforwardly amount to the democratization of public discourse. Or, I should say, does not straightforwardly elevate the value of the public sphere. "No Comment," at this link. And pasted in full below the…
bcohen | September 13, 2008The same guy who sent me those Patagonian Volcano Storm pictures (thanks Dana, by the way) also forwarded these images of a mass migration of stingrays. To quote the note I got, they look "like giant leaves floating in the sea." I first thought it was some kind of quilt, a checkered pattern on a blanket. The pictures were taken off the Yucatan Peninsula by Sandra Critelli.
bcohen | September 12, 2008A former student sent along these fascinating images. The e-mail said: "Tons of dust and ash from the eruption of the Chaitin volcano poured into the night sky just as an electric storm passed overhead. The resulting collision created a spectacular sight as lightning flickered around the dust cloud amid the orange glow of the volcano. The eruption was all the more spectacular because the Chaitin volcano, 800 miles (1,290km) south of Santiago, has been dormant for hundreds - if not thousands of years."
Apparently, this happened in May.
(The note didn't say who took these, so I don…
worldsfair | September 12, 2008That's Canadian candidates folks. Anyway, it would go something like this:
STEPHEN HARPER: Voting for a harpist would be cool. I mean, I'm no classical musician, but that Stephen Harper seems downright magical on the harp - a real virtuoso. His fingers just seem to glide over the strings. His technique and speed are unmatched, and his concentration, you can see it in his eyes. It's like he's Eddie Van Halen, but on the harp, and with a sweater vest I guess.
More importantly, if you're a canadian reader, I'd love to hear your opinion of him. Better yet, leave that opinion here, so that…
bcohen | September 11, 2008In the pantheon of American letters, The Guilfoile-Warner Papers have long held a spot of hallowed pre-eminence. With their contribution this week, the correspondence has now reached Daily Shovian levels of excellence. I had sought to choose the best line in their column, but got caught unable to rank which of the many great lines was best. So, for us, a sampling below. I'll let readers decide how to rank their astuteness. But please, for sanity's sake, confer the entire column here at The Morning News.
On the implausibility of Pailn's selection:
The [probability] that [Palin] might be…
bcohen | September 11, 2008"As America's colleges and universities search for ways to go green, many are looking at the dining hall....where five times more energy and water are consumed than any place else on campus." (WVTF)
Small things matter.
Here at U.Va. and apparently at several hundred other colleges, Aramark--a primary food distribution company for large organizations like schools and hospitals and corporations--is going without trays. (Listen here. See here.) Large-scale food distribution provides both the benefits of efficiencies of scale and the drawbacks of efficiencies of scale. They can get a lot of…
bcohen | September 11, 2008Part 1 | 2 | 3 | 4
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Part 4 with Jody Roberts and Michelle Murphy--discussing her book Sick Building Syndrome and the Problem of Uncertainty--follows below. All entries in the author-meets-blogger series can be found here.
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WF: The book is titled "Sick Building Syndrome and the Problem of Uncertainty." Why is uncertainty a problem? Or, perhaps we should ask, where or when is uncertainty a problem?
MM: Uncertainty, I would suggest, is a constitutive feature of much environmental politics, and particularly chemical exposures. Legal standards that demand we know the predictable…
worldsfair | September 10, 2008Now that the world is safe, Jennifer (from Shifting Baselines) and I are going to be buzzing around one of local watering holes (Koerner's pub) on Thursday, September 18th, from 6pm. As well, we have a little pocket money from Seed which should be good for one or two rounds (depending I guess on how many folks turn up).
Anyway, if you hail from Vancouver or are within reach, and feel like coming down for a beer (Koerner's has some good stuff), then do come by and say hello.
Here is a link to let you know the whereabouts of Koerner's and I've also set up a Facebook event page just so that we…
bcohen | September 10, 2008Part 1 | 2 | 3 | 4
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Part 3 with Jody Roberts and Michelle Murphy--discussing her book Sick Building Syndrome and the Problem of Uncertainty--follows below. All entries in the author-meets-blogger series can be found here.
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WF: Racism is a word that generally makes us feel uncomfortable, especially when it's linked to politics or science. When I've introduced the term in courses I've taught (using your writings) my students get visibly uncomfortable. It's not the case or the injustices that sets them off - they tend to agree with much of what's said - but they have a very…
bcohen | September 9, 2008Part 1 | 2 | 3 | 4
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Part 2 with Jody Roberts and Michelle Murphy--discussing her book Sick Building Syndrome and the Problem of Uncertainty--follows below. All entries in the author-meets-blogger series can be found here.
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WF: So we've got the women on the inside organizing and collecting their own data. But how did this fit within the language and practices of the outside "experts" dealing with these cases?
MM: I also wanted to insist that what the "experts" were doing around SBS (and the politics of low-level chemical exposures more generally) was also crafted out of gendered…
bcohen | September 8, 2008Part 1 (below) | 2 | 3 | 4
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Note: This author-meets-blogger set was produced by guest blogger Jody Roberts, whose prior contributions can be found here, here, and here.
On behalf of The World's Fair, Roberts recently cornered historian and STS scholar Michelle Murphy to talk about her award-winning book Sick Building Syndrome and the Problem of Uncertainty: Environmental Politics, Technoscience, and Women Workers (Duke University Press, 2006).
Odds are you're reading this edition of author-meets-blogger while sitting at your desk in your office. Odds are that office is a virtual…
worldsfair | September 5, 2008 Humour piece by Patrick Francis. Good stuff, and a list that includes "Global Warming", as well as the "Swiss" Here's an excerpt:
Disease
Bacteria are catching on to the whole antibiotic thing and they are doing something about it: evolving! Antibiotics are pretty much the cornerstone of our modern medical system and without them we're helpless. And this is coming at a really bad time what with crazy pig-viruses, bird flus and SARS type things coming at us with, judging from the media, ever increasing frequency. It's going to be like 14th century Europe all over again except with facebook…
bcohen | September 5, 2008Or thank whatever/whoever it is atheist readers thank. PZ I guess.
Required viewing below the fold.
From the 3 Sept 08 show.
worldsfair | September 4, 2008
Actually, the clues are probably too obvious but how cool is this...
(Answer below the fold)
Here - this should pretty much give it away.
Yes, the answer is the Pacific Ocean, about 4km deep.
What we have here is a wonderful example of science culture, specifically from science types who study the ocean (whether it be with a earth science or life science angle). This cup which was given to me by Dave Semenuik (who also blogs over at terry.ubc.ca),. Dave's research focuses on monitoring trace metals in certain marine life, partly from an evolutionary angle, but also as a read out of ocean…