Scary
surreal
Category: My Rants and Ramblings
Happy Canada Day !
to all my Canadian friends –
It’s all in the context …
my feelings on the whole Paula Deen brouhaha –
George Carlin said it best …
The House Began to Pitch
just had a tornado touch down here at Denver International Airport …
Book Review –
Dan Brown – Inferno
Dan Brown is always kind of fun to read. Like a cross between James Patterson and a *Blank* -for-Dummies book. Short chapters that give you a Cliff Notes version course in the topic of the day.
I mean he always takes some (relatively) obscure cult and crosses it a fairly well-known Painter/Author/Whatever and 104 chapters later there you have it.
Inferno is no exception. Take a little bit of Durante degli Alighieri, more commonly known as “Dante” ( of the high school AP English or College 101 lit staple Dante’s Inferno ) , add a bizarre ideology called the Transhumanist Movement, throw in a cross-Europe chase and possible case of amnesia for Brown’s antagonist/hero Robert Langdon, and you have a book that very rarely let’s up in the narrative. That is until the last 3 or 4 chapters which are just the literary equivalent of the Scooby Gang’s ” Now we’ll tell you why Old Man Smithers did what ever he did”.
I did enjoy this outing much more than his last, The Lost Symbol, and I’ll most likely pick up whatever book he puts out next. Who knows maybe a combo of Botticelli and fake moon landing conspiracy …. ?
Summer Reading –
It’s time to get my summer reading list going. This summer I am going ( to try ) and (re)read the Song of Ice and Fire series. I have already read A Game of Thrones , A Clash of Kings and A Storm of Swords, so those will be my re-reading to bet back into the series. I will then get to A Feast for Crows and A Dance with Dragons…
Now I don’t read really fast, I tend to view reading like walking down a mountain path. I stop at a particularly nice flower ( sentence or even paragraph ) and read it two or even three times. I have even been known to go back and read a really good chapter again; or I might get distracted and wander off the main path entirely and search out stuff related to what i’m reading. Reading on an iPad makes this particular sojourn even more easy and appealing since all I have to do is highlight something and voi-là I’m magically taken to what/where ever i was distracted by ….
So …. I will keep you apprised as to my progress as I venture back into the lands Westeros and all happiness and tumult that that can inspire ….
Hodor –
I’m going to use this as an expletive –
Fast and Meh –
After hearing how Fast and Furious 6 had made like 300 bazillion dollars and was the best movie of , like , ever , I decided to try and mainline the first 5 movies before i went to see this entry ( since i’d never seen them before ).
Not being a car-guy ( i can barely find the gas cap and publicly ridicule NASCAR ) i admit I went into this with a semi-open mind and wide open wallet , since i had to rent these from iTunes …
I made it through The Fast and The Furious ok , nothing to write home about i thought ….
2 Fast and 2 Furious – ummmm …. swap Miami for L.A. and call it a day ( minus Vin Diesel )
The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift – that’s where this story ends …. half way through this “sequel” where none of the characters are the same & the story is about some 30 year-old high school git learning not to run into guardrails , i lost all interest and gave up ….
This series could be the Citizen Kane of car movies , but I couldn’t care less.
now if i can just remember which side my gas cap is on when i fill up tomorrow ….
Happy Earth Day –
Can we please treat Gaia with the respect that she so desperatly needs and deserves ??
There’s a popular saying about our planet and humankind’s negative effects on its ecology:
“We treat this world of ours as though we have a spare in the trunk.”
Since the nearest planets that could possibly sustain life appear to be more than 1,200 light years away, it may be wise for Earthlings to do what we can to preserve the nice place we already have.
Since 1970, every April 22, Earth Day reminds us to do just that.
GALLERY: See celebs trying to save the planet
If you think we have more pressing matters to deal with than keeping Mother Earth in shape, consider the people of Afghanistan.
Earth Day: Beautiful places for wildlife
Climate change impacts the world
In 2011, the Green Club of Afghanistan planted more than 28 million trees. That’s nearly one tree per person in one of the world’s most war-torn nations.
Or, turn your sights to the beaches of California where a group of volunteers collected more than 3 million pounds of trash that could be recycled, and that was just a day’s haul.
The best intentions and actions are driven by knowledge, so here’s a little quiz to help you bone up on ecology:
The Quiz
1. How many pounds of trash did the United States create, per person, every day in 2010?
A. 1.23 lbs.
B. 3.46 lbs.
C. 4.43 lbs.
Answer: C — Less than 5 pounds may not seem like much, but if you multiply it by 365 days, that’s 1,617 pounds of garbage per person over a year.
2. The seven worst metropolitan areas for ozone pollution are all in California. No. 8 is in another state. Which is it?
A. Phoenix
B. New York
C. Houston
Answer: C — Houston, but some metro areas that may surprise youare not far behind, like Charlotte, North Carolina.
3. What percentage of hybrid car owners replace it with another hybrid when it’s time to get a new car?
A. 79%
B. 45.2%
C. 35%
Answer: C — Only 35% of people who buy a hybrid once buy one again. With all the praise they receive, isn’t it surprising so few drivers buy a second one?
4. About 70% of the Earth is covered with water. Only a relatively small amount of it is potentially potable fresh water. How much?
A. 1%
B. 2.5%
C. 7.3%
Answer: B — Only 2.5% of water on Earth is fresh water. And 70% of that is locked up in polar ice.
5. Though fresh water would seem somewhat precious, Americans use a lot of it every day. On average, what is the approximate daily water use of each household?
A. 25 gallons
B. 50 gallons
C. 300 gallons
Answer: C — 300 gallons. That’s what the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says. Meanwhile, more than 750 million people (more than 10% of the world’s population) still don’t have adequate access to drinking water, according to the United Nations.
6. A lot of the water Americans consume lands on their lawns. What percentage, on average, is used for outdoor purposes?
A. About 10%
B. About 30%
C. About 60%
Answer: B — About 30% of U.S. residential and commercial water goes for outdoor use. And up to 50% of that evaporates if you water in the heat of the day, the EPA estimates.
7. Which of the following takes the longest time to break down?
A. Plastic six-pack holder
B. Hard plastic container
C. Disposable diaper
Answer: A — A plastic six-pack holder takes 450 years to disintegrate. Consider the impact of plastic water bottles, which take as long to biodegrade. The International Bottled Water Association says that in the top 10 global markets alone, people consumed more than 61 billion gallons of bottled water in 2011.
8. Which of the following accounts for the greatest percentage of total waste in the United States?
A. Paper
C. Plastics
D. Glass
Answer: A — Paper is by far the No. 1 item Americans dispose of. But it is also the most recycled material.
9. How much solid waste does the United States produce in one year?
A. 50 million tons
B. 150 million tons
C. 250 million tons
Answer: C — 250 million tons, says the EPA. That’s more than 1,000 times greater than one of the largest cruise ships in the world.
10. Which of the following countries had higher emissions of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide, per capita, in 2008 than the other two?
A. United States
B. Russia
C. Australia
C — Australia emitted 26.08 tons of carbon dioxide per person in 2008. For comparison’s sake, a full tanker truck can weigh between 12 and 25 tons. U.S. and Russian per-person emissions that year were 22 and 15 tons, respectively.
http://www.cnn.com/2013/04/22/world/earth-day/index.html
my mostly unfabulous life 