R Blog

Does John Edwards Get It?

What’s up with John (my father was a mill worker) Edwards? Is it possible that really rich people just lose their sense of perspective completely? Among other policies Edwards claims to support is President Jimmy Carter’s 1979 call to action to reduce dependency on fossil fuels. But the Edwards family just moved into a huge “facility” on 102 acres near Chapel Hill. From the small aerial photo in the Carolina Journal it appears that clear cutting was required to establish the home site for the enormous complex of buildings. “The Edwards home totals 28,200 square feet of connected space. The main house is 10,400 square feet and has two garages. The recreation building, a red, barn-like building containing 15,600 square feet, is connected to the house by a closed-in and roofed structure of varying widths and elevations that totals 2,200 square feet.” I suppose everything is relative and a matter of scale but, really, how much room does one family need? I suppose one could argue that it’s smaller than the 53,000 sq. ft.  monster being built in Montana. However, given the size of the Edwards home and accouterments Elizabeth Edwards bragging about their energy consciousness sounds ridiculous and, frankly, insensitive to anyone who is really trying to conserve.  Here’s an excerpt from Elizabeth Edwards blog of Jan 26,2007: “Since we were building a home in Orange County, we decided to take advantage of some of the technology that President Carter had encouraged.  All the water (all of which comes from wells) in our home and some of the flooring is heated with solar energy. We built a highly energy efficient house. In fact, our home is Energy-Star rated. Energy Star is an EPA regulated designation for homes that are at least 30 percent more efficient than the national Model Energy Code.  In building we made sure we had effective insulation in floors, walls, and attics. We chose efficient heating and cooling equipment and high-performance windows.  Our builder paid close attention to making sure the construction was tight to seal out drafts and moisture. The day the independent inspector came to evaluate the house, we were on pins and needles while he tested our home's energy performance.  As he packed his equipment, he gave us the good news: we are an Energy-Star home!  We recycle, of course, although just yesterday we got our Orange County recycle bin. Until then we used the recycle facility just down the road. (The trash compactor I debated putting in is really useful for compacting cans and plastic, it turns out.)”
There is something a bit contradictory about energy efficiency in a 28,000 sq. ft. home and it makes me wonder if the Edwards family really does get it. In her blog she goes on at length about replacing incandescent bulbs with flourescents. In her case, maybe just fewer bulbs would have been the answer.

Protagonist

Reviewed in Variety  Now Playing at Sundance

(Documentary)
A Diorama Films production in association with the Carr Foundation. (International sales: Submarine Entertainment, New York.) Produced by Jessica Yu, Elise Pearlstein, Susan West. Executive producers, Greg Carr, Noble Smith. Directed, written, edited by Jessica Yu.

By JOHN ANDERSON

The dangers of extremism and the virtues of uncertainty are the keys to the remarkable "Protagonist," docu helmer Jessica Yu's exploration of four men's journey through dysfunction, obsession and redemption. The film's sheer boldness -- Yu uses puppets, and the work of 5th Century B.C. Greek dramatist Euripides to illustrate the timelessness of her subjects' dilemmas -- should make it a must-see among doc fans and artfilm cinephiles.
In some very specific ways, "Protagonist" resembles Errol Morris' "Fast, Cheap and Out of Control," in the initial elusiveness of intent and ; the disparity of its characters. What can Hans Joachim Klein, Mark Pierpont, Mark Salzman and Joe Loya -- a German terrorist, a "reformed" gay Christian, a martial-arts enthusiast and a bank robber -- possibly have in common? What develops -- over perhaps too prolonged an introduction to their personalities and stories -- is the issue of control: All were abused in some way as children and chose to cope through extreme and ultimately destructive behavior -- behavior they truly believed would save them.
Klein was a child of Nazi Germany, and became part of the post-Baader-Meinhoff revolutionary movement that was involved with the kidnapping of OPEC ministers and the Entebbe hijacking. Pierpont, resisting his gay nature, became an anti-gay televangelist. Salzman, brutally bullied at school, was inspired by David Carradine and TV's "Kung Fu" to pursue serenity through martial arts but discovered his obsession was overtaking his life. Loya, whose father was a sadistic bully, found solace through robbing banks.
The parallels between Greek tragedy and the subjects' own harrowing histories eventually becomes clear, with chapter headings drawn from Euripides -- from "Character" to "Catharsis" to "Reflection" -- complete with Hellenic art motifs. The effect is to place four very up-to-date people in the frame of history, and portray the human condition as timeless.
Although most of Yu's movie consists of the subjects reviewing their own lives -- and how and why their dedication to their chosen causes eventually crumbled -- she has chosen four very articulate people who never stumble over their words and have a total grip on the meaning of their lives. Their recollections never feel rehearsed, and the briskness of their delivery keeps the film from bogging down.
Add to this the elegant production values and the HD work of Russell Harper and Karl Hahn, and "Protagonist" is an irresistible and novel trip into innovative storytelling and satisfying resolutions.

Sustainable Energy Bike Tours

It’s Monday which means it’s The-world-is-coming-to-an-end-according-to-Peak-Oil-theorist-James-Kunstler-day. Actually, this week Kunstler rails about the democratic presidential candidates. But if you aren’t interested in that you can read about a very interesting bike tour  called  Sustainable Energy in Motion Bike Tours which take place in Oregon and visit sustainable communities this June, July and August. You can go to their web site and enter to win a free trip. I really ought to do this now that I am spending all my free time reading Home Power Magazine and Backwoods Home Magazine back issues. It’s hard thinking about become a sustainable operation at my age. So much to learn and I’m almost dead (according to life expectancy tables). This bike ride sounds like a winner.

Child Development. Ay!

I collected evidence today that Canadian toddlers develop coordination skills a full six months earlier than do American children. A quick survey of the internets using the Google doesn't reveal why this is the case. However, it is apparently true or the Seattle Parks Department wouldn’t be so adamant. (See photo). Today at the park there was a very distraught 18 month old American child watching a similarly young visitor from Canada play on the Jungle Jim/slide contraption which the American kid was strongly advised not to use. His parents were not able to explain to him why he wasn’t as capable as his contemporary from the North. Many of us have long suspected that Canada enjoys certain superiority's. Some believe their medical system to be better. But who knew that their young ones developed earlier agility than ours?

A Post Oil Man

Kunstler has me on the ropes again after  his Monday essay writing about how “the four largest super-giant oil fields of the world are now in decline.” So, here’s me driving to Seattle today:
“It won’t be long before you’ll be able to ride your bike every day in the car pool lane. Wonder if people will just leave their cars along side the road or figure out a way to tear them apart and use the stuff. Make wagons and such. I wonder if you can still buy an ox anywhere. An ox would be handy for pulling and plowing. You could use the poop for fertilizer. I heard there’s a group up on the island who meet to discuss conspiracies, global warming, contrails. They call themselves “The Wednesday Night Group.” They meet on Thursday. They’re cautious. I might have to join. I’m kind of into  the 9-11 thing Being on an island might be problematic. But there’s room for a big garden and a green house. Maybe we can get off the grid. Should probably get a small sailboat, too. One I can row. Better buy a gun. Pirates. Should start collecting seeds now. Beans keep for a really long time. Might skip a wind generating turbine and go directly to a windmill. Maybe rig up an old bike to pump water out of the well. We better get a cistern. The wells could go salty on us. When peak oil comes I’ll have a lot more time. Won’t have to blog anymore. This guy probably has the right idea.”

I Wants My Precious iPhone

The essence of marketing is to create desire for something a buyer does not need. For who among us really needs a fantastically elegant piece of fluff that plays music, TV shows and movies, makes phone calls, sends email, and searches the internet all in one breathtakingly small package? Why, it fits in your hand. Steve Jobs is a master at creating products that bring out the Gollum in us all. Wikipedia points out that Gollum got his name because of the disgusting gurgling noise he made in his throat. Learning that Steve Jobs Macworld  keynote introduction of Apple’s new iPhone could be viewed in its entirety, Linda and I sat down and watched. Not twenty minutes into the presentation I could hear strange gurgling noises. “What’s that noise?” she demanded. “It’s you, isn’t it?” I replied. My god! We were both making Gollum-like noises while lusting for our very own iPhones so we could do all the cool things that that devil Steve was showing us it could do. Half way through the presentation we paused to change our shirts which were covered in the drool that can only be produced by Mac addicts. “It scrolls like a roulette wheel,” cooed Linda as we returned to view more about our precious. “When you turn it sideways, the picture turns sideways, too,” I offered thinking I actually could strangle Deagol for one of these babies. Steve, in his corporate uniform of running shoes, beltless blue jeans and a collarless long-sleeved t-shirt, looked about as happy as Satan with a new temptation. He was so excited I worried that he would pee his Levi's. Feature after feature was displayed and demonstrated: integrated contact lists, call merging, album flow (something I didn’t even know I wanted), multi-touch display, web browsing. He used his finger as a stylus! He found the closest Starbucks on a Google Map! He called them and ordered 4000 lattes (for he is Steve Jobs and can do such things). He listened to a voice mail from Al Gore. He wouldn’t stop. By then, Linda and I were lurching around the house on all fours. The iPhone had created a terrible hunger and we were soon snacking on raw fishes and tiny Orcs who had sought refuge in our house during yesterday’s blizzard. “Let’s buy Apple stock,” she began to mutter. “Buy Apple stock. Buy Apple stock.” But no one really needs an iPhone,” I hollered in a moment of lucidity. “It doesn’t matter,” she said. “Everyone will want one. They are precious.”
Actual photo of us at the end of the iPhone presentation.

Fantasy Golf

I’m playing fantasy golf this year. It’s not quite as complicated as fantasy football. More laid back. I’ve watched my son and nephew-in-law agonize over their weekly games. I don’t think fantasy golf will be that intense. But it does increase your interest round by round in every golf tournament. As they say somewhere, “It gives you a dog in the fight.” I am a reader of thegolfblog.com, a fairly active commentary on all things golf and Jason (the golfblogger) offered the chance to play in a private league. I don’t think I really understand it. But here’s my explanation for those who are interested (bye, bye most of you):
Players are seeded into three categories—A, B and C. You pick a team for each tournament like the way you used to order Chinese food. Two from Column A, four from column B and two from Column C. You pick from the pool of players entered in the tournament. You have eight on your team. Yahoo figures all this out for you. Before the tournament starts you pick a foursome: One A player, two B players and one C player. You can change out your lineup after each round based on who is playing well and who is not. If Tiger is playing probably everyone picks him. Column A  then is a standoff. The key to doing well when Tiger plays seems to be pick well from B and C. (I think Tiger may well win most of the tournaments he enters for the next several years). Here’s how the scoring works: Low round of the day gets 20 pts. Other golfers receive 2 fewer points for every stroke they finish behind the leader. Winner gets 20 bonus points, second place 10 and third place 5. There’s more, like each player can only be entered 20 times, but this gives you the idea. So many of you have written to ask how I did it. How did I manage to finish a close second in my league and ahead of 94% of the 10,000 fantasy golf players, you wonder? This in my very first fantasy golf league tournament. My technique is to use a pendulum and dowse. Here's how you dowse. So,  you can buy a pendulum or you can make one. I think I’ll make a new pendulum using my favorite ball marker—a Canadian dollar I forgot to spend the last time I was in Canada. Why use a pendulum you may wonder? Well, it is “fantasy” golf after all. My fantasy is that I can pick as well with a pendulum as most people can doing their detailed evaluations or just guessing. This week we are playing in Honolulu. I actually went to this tournament once. My advice if you are going in person: take the bus. There isn’t much parking at that country club. My foursome for the first round will be Jim Furyk, JB Holmes, Anthony Kim and Trevor Immelman. With almost 150 players in the field and no Tiger, it’s pretty much a crap shoot. If you want to try your luck against thegolfbloggers go to thegolfblog.com and follow the links.

The Snag

Over at the yurt,  a family investment on the west side of the island, there is a tall dead tree in the middle of the yard. At the top was a huge nest of limbs and branches. In the most recent windstorm a few days ago this top heaviness gave way to rot and gravity and about six feet of decayed trunk with assorted woody appendages plunged to the ground where the trunk buried itself about a foot into the yard. It had been a thicket of dead stuff. Had it been hit by lightening it would have been a torch seen from as far away as Canada. We had plenty to do over there already what with previous snow and windstorms. Linda and I had been piling and moving broken branches on previous visits. But the snag was a new and somewhat overwhelming chore. This morning we took the chain saw over and went to work sawing from the perimeter to the center. But when I decided to cut through the main branch the saw got pinched doing an undercut. There was no moving it. It was Excaliber. We went home and got an axe, a maul and chain saw number two. After a quick lunch we returned. Chain saw number two refused to start. Vic, a neighbor, wandered over and two of us heaving on the branch couldn’t release the pinch. Using the axe or maul as a wedge didn’t work as there wasn’t enough room. So, finally, I tuned up the axe blade with a file I had remembered to bring along and impressed Linda with my axeuracy. She gazed adoringly at me as if I were Ronnie and she were The Nancy. Chopping though the big branch released the chain saw and we were in business again. Moca, the neighbor dog came over to watch but got really bored and went home. We hauled and piled and made a bit of firewood. Another neighbor volunteered her husband and his tractor to haul the stacks to his burn pile. He’ll probably do it. We salvaged a trunk load of firewood. Could have gotten more, but I got tired of sawing and the fumes always give me a headache. (Would it be totally uncool to wear a respirator whilst using the chain saw? Would I be a laughing stock? Simple answer—yes. Headache it is then).  And, in the end, we decided to leave the rotted trunk with its outriggers as a sort of lawn sculpture, a natural bench. It will be, at the least, an interesting anecdote. All in all it was a very good day. But, then, I consider any day chain sawing to be a good day if I don’t have to go for stitches.

North Shore Blues

We’re going to miss winter in Hawaii for the first time in many years. I’m missing the North Shore (of Oahu, that is). The North Shore has that laid back country feel though there’s a big fight going on right now.  Kuilima, the company that owns Turtle Bay Resort, wants to add thousands of hotel rooms and condos to the resort property under an agreement negotiated twenty years ago. Lines have been drawn. Some are fer it; some are agin it. Both sides have some good arguments. The North Shore has this odd mix of plantation shacks, multimillion dollar homes, a funky little town (Haleiwa) and only one resort. It’s surfer country and the surfing culture prevails. Surfing is a better than average spectator sport (because the spectators are also fun to look at) and when the big events occur there are thousands of spectators jamming the single two lane highway from Honolulu and absolutely nowhere to park. From Haleiwa to Kuhuku, 15 miles of prime surfing beaches including Pipeline and Sunset, there are but a handful of places to eat, buy groceries or take a leak. Local knowledge is important and tourists only seem to stop at Sunset and the turtle beach, both of which are wide open to view. (They can’t usually find the Pipeline because the sign says "Ehukai Beach Park"). The North Shore is so country that there is only one Starbucks. But this Starbucks is the gathering place for surfers, tourists and celebrities. Board shorts, tee shirts and flip flops are the uniform of the day. If you are a local and it’s a bit chilly (79 and rainy) you’ll probably wear jeans and a sweatshirt. There are ways, however, to sample the delights of the North Shore when you can’t get there. You can watch
Lost which is filmed mostly on the North Shore just outside Haleiwa. And, if you keep your eyes open you might see Terry O’Quinn, who plays John Locke, in Starbucks. Another way to visit the North Shore is to download a video podcast from iTunes called Hawaii Surf Session Report Hawaii Surf Session Report. Great camera work and good background music from local bands. But the real sound track for the North Shore has to come from Jack Johnson  Jack Johnson, along with Kelly Slater (who is a regular at Starbucks when he’s around) are the biggest North Shore celebrities. Jack Johnson is not a typical North Shore surfer. He actually grew up there. (I’m going to guess that at least half the North Shore surfers are from other countries). Jack’s music is laid back, lyrical, relaxing and surprising. He’s got a bit of the Hawaiian patois and plays a terrific slack string guitar. My grandson and I like his video for “Upside Down” with Jack and Curious George in an underwater fantsy world. It’s also fun to watch “Taylor” and see Ben Stiller play a North Shore tourist geek. If you like that then go to "video bonuses" and view the out takes for that video. The thing about the North Shore is that if you don’t surf then you’re a Ben Stiller geek. And, keep your eyes open. You'll probably bump into Jack. Don't be surprised if there are little kids following him.

Death of the Automobile Culture

I’ve  blogged before about James Kunstler’s weekly essay on Clusterfuck Nation (A clusterfuck is, originally, a military term for an operation in which multiple things have gone wrong). What Kunstler defines as our national clusterfuck is our dependence on oil to run our cars, trucks and airplanes and our naive belief that the way of life the automobile has manifested in America can continue forever. In the most recent issue of  Orion Magazine Kunstler states his case again offering “a wake-up call to a citizenry in the shadow of oil scarcity” in an article headlined “Making Other Arrangements.” He pops the balloon of hope that leads us to believe that alternative technologies will save the day.  “We are going to have trouble feeding ourselves in the years ahead, not to mention the many nations who depend for survival on American grain exports. So the idea that we can simply shift millions of acres from food crops to ethanol or biodiesel crops to make fuels for cars represents a staggering misunderstanding of reality.” The article is a terse summary of his writing and thinking on this very depressing subject. Kunstler does paint a picture of what we need to do and what our future might look like. It’s a very local picture. For he suggests that we will have to live locally and spend more time living where we are at. We will have to bring food growing back to the center of economic life and reorganize retail trade by rebuilding local economic interdependence. We won’t have the fuel to support the 12,000 mile Wal-mart supply line from China to Kansas City. We won’t be able to ship fresh lettuce from Salinas to Newark. In  fact, we’ll have to make other arrangements for transporting goods. Kunstler advocates bringing back the railroads and electrifying them and increasing maritime trade on a local scale using rivers, canals and waterways. We’ll have to give up suburbia. It won’t work without cars:  “We invested most of our late twentieth-century wealth in a living arrangement with no future. American suburbia represents the greatest misallocation of resources in the history of the world. The far-flung housing subdivisions, commercial highway strips, big-box stores, and all the other furnishings and accessories of extreme car dependence will function poorly, if at all, in an oil-scarce future.” Political power, thinks Kunstler, will devolve to the local level and the Federal Government will be lucky to be able to “answer the phones” let alone exert any kind of big brother tyranny. He says that, “Further along in this century, the real political action will likely shift down to the local level, as reconstructed neighborly associations allow people to tackle problems locally...” like education which will not be able to rely on a fleet of buses. As always, Kunstler is worth studying and thinking about. These people  are thinking about a world without petroleum in Y2K fashion. I blew off Y2K without stocking a single gunny sack of rice. I’ve decided not to blow off peak oil.