preraphaelitepunk.com

• BBC NEWS | Swede prepares for critical mission
  Sweden’s first astronaut will be heading for the space station on the next shuttle launch. Cool!
  (tags: sweden science space esa)

• GA Senate Resolution 67
  It passed. Bugger.
  (tags: georgia government idiocy antihunting)

• BBC NEWS | World risks ‘dirty’ energy future
  Interesting new report from the IEA on energy projections. I’m not wholly comfortable with their nuclear energy recommendations, though: it seems rather frying pan/fire to me. . . .
  (tags: energy iea)
• Treehugger: There’s A Frog Disruptor In My Soap
  It seems that levels of triclosan (antibacterial) are high enough in our water to screw up amphibian development. Any guesses about what it might be doing to us when we put it on our skin?
  (tags: triclosan antibacterial frogs eww)
• Treehugger: Convert Biomass into Syngas Fast: No Extra Carbon Needed
  Somehow, the idea of a maple-syrup-powered home amuses me vastly. Now if they could just figure out how to convert dog hair dust bunnies into clean fuel, I’d be set.
  (tags: biomass alternativeenergy)
• BBC NEWS | Clean energy is ‘cost effective’
  The IEA’s World Energy Outlook report, seen from more of an economic viewpoint. . . .
  (tags: energy iea)

Election ‘06

Originally uploaded by moria.

For what good it’ll do . . . Georgia is pretty conservative indeed, so I’m not getting my hopes up too much.

There was an initiative on the ballot about sanctifying in our actual bloody state constitution the right to hunt and fish, by the way. 9.9 (Three guesses which way I voted on that!) Sometimes I seriously worry about the state, and about humanity in general.

Less than half an hour ’til the polls close here. Keep your fingers crossed and, if religious, politely ask the deity of your choice that we regain control of at least part of Congress. (The Democrats are far from perfect, but in their favor is the very important point that they are, except perhaps for some arch-conservative Democratic politicians in Georgia, not Republicans.) Me, I’ll be sacrificing a block of tofu on the altar of the great divine Commonsensia, asking that this election goes well.

• Treehugger: State-Sponsored Ad Campaign Promotes Cleanliness in Stockholm
  Nice! Hopefully the next step is marking the nearest public recycling bins, and not just rubbish bins. (I’m just happy that I knew all the words on the sign except “närmaste.”)
  (tags: stockholm litter)

As you might’ve noticed, I’ve been rather slack and/or lazy about non-bookmark posts of late. Apologies; please chalk it up to my usual distractable nature and the multiplicity of projects going all at once.

Progress on the recycling committee at work continues; the response to the battery recycling campaign at least has been positive. The idea is just to make it convenient for people to recycle and conserve resources, and gradually make it part of the corporate culture — so it’s no big deal, it’s just what you do, like turning off the lights when you leave a room. Additionally, the rumor is that we’ll be seeking LEED certification after our building is refurbished — and as I understand it, recycling is required for certifying new and heavily renovated buildings (see p. 45 of the linked PDF). Currently we’ve got battery and paper recycling (though it was shocking how many people were oblivious to the blue receptacles that say “We Recycle!” on the sides, or the big green receptacles with the “Paper Recycling: If You Can Tear It, We Will Take It” by the staff entrance), and there are plans in the works to provide accessible recycling for plastics, soda cans, cardboard, and, well, virtually everything we can recycle. Fingers crossed that we’ll be allowed to do this. . . .

On the “getting out of the flat and into potential social situations” front, progress has been mixed. Last week I actually went out twice, with the kind assistance of Cindy and Darren, to photography shows; this week, I’ve only made it out once, to the Martinis and IMAX thing at Fernbank. I think I preferred the shows, actually. The Fernbank thing might’ve been more fun if I’d gone with other people, but it didn’t seem designed for mixing and meeting new people — at least not for shy geeky types whose general party behavior consists of standing in the corner with a drink watching everyone else and trying to look mysterious instead of awkward. (With apologies to Lenny Henry for swiping his line, “Je ne mingle pas.”) Most of the seating seemed geared toward groups of four or more, unless you wanted to isolate yourself on a bench way out on the perimeter of the atrium. The drinks were good but rather yipe-inducingly expensive (I had a raspberry truffle — berry vodka, chocolate liqueur, and, um, something else I’ve forgotten: $8); absolutely none of the food was vegan-friendly, though after seeing the prices I felt somewhat less sad about that. I’d had high hopes of at least enjoying the live music, which was described on the Web site as “acoustic swing” but actually had a vocalist; unfortunately, the acoustics were crap and the sound was all muddy. I stalked around for a few laps to scope out the other guests (mostly couples or groups, and largely split between apparent MBA types out on dates and older couples), then stood propped up against a pillar with my drink and watched the people dancing, while I thought, “And this is more fun than watching ‘Doctor Who’ with my dog how, exactly?” All in all, not highly satisfactory, and I only stayed a little over an hour. (Maybe the jazz night at the High Museum will be more pleasant: I suspect the percentage of yuppies might still be somewhat high for my taste, but at least the museum itself is supposed to be open, so you’ll have something to examine and a reason to circulate — and something to discuss if you manage to start a conversation.)

Still trying to finish off The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich without getting too horribly depressed; I’m almost 400 pages into it, and Austria has just fallen to the Anschluss and they’re gearing up for attacking Czechoslovakia. Approximately 600 pages to go, and it’s only going to get worse, of course. I find that I can only manage about 20 pages or so at a time, and then I have to go do something lighter; happily, my “Bit of Fry and Laurie” DVDs arrived this week, so I have plenty of clever sketch comedy to distract me. (I particularly enjoyed the combination dancercise and quantity-surveying sketch.)

On the other hand, perhaps I get distracted too easily: I realized with some amount of panic that I’ve only got about two and a half weeks before I leave for Stockholm, and I am nowhere near prepared enough. o.O I have no clue how it snuck up on me so quickly. I still don’t have a voltage converter, I still haven’t made my final schedule or mapped out locations and tube stops of all the places I want to go, and I’m still exceedingly halting and feeble in Swedish. I’ve been desperately trying to practice (using two different software packages, Pimmsleur audio, and my guidebook’s appendix), but somehow I suspect much of my time will be spent with an apologetic smile frozen on my face as I apologize for my pitiful vocabulary and inevitable confusion. On the positive side, though, I have acquired a very dignified and stylish (for a given value of “style,” though admittedly probably not one recognized by the population at large) bobble-type winter hat with earflaps, so at least I can hope to stay reasonably warm, and perhaps provide some entertainment and/or amusement to passersby to make up for my unintelligible attempts to communicate.

• EU: Battery Recycling Directive (via Treehugger)
  Le sigh. Is there a nice European family out there who wants to adopt me, so I can live in a place that actually cares about these things? I’m quiet and don’t take up much space. :) (TH article: http://www.treehugger.com/files/2006/05/battery_recycli.php)
  (tags: environment recycling batteries EU)