“The Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX) announced on Oct. 21 that it will be ending carbon trading — the only purpose for which it was founded — this year,” reports Steve Milloy. So cap-and-trade is over, though carbon offsets persist. Have you heard or seen this in the news? (via Roy Jacobsen the Beneficent)
The State of the Blogosphere
Who is blogging, how often, and what relationship do they have with traditional media?
Standard Time: Fall Back
For those of us who have been participating in Daylight Savings Time, we must turn back our clocks an hour. Fall back, you know.
Now, in New Zealand, they do things a differently: Continue reading Standard Time: Fall Back
Un-Touched By an Angel
This is a post about lost love. Not personal, romantic love (I’ve overplayed that card in this space), but television series that at one time or another were high points of my week, satisfying substitutes for an actual social life. And then something happened, and love died.
My judgments on these programs are not intended to be a guide to the reader. If you enjoy these shows (most of them are still on the air), God bless you. Enjoy yourself.
But they are dead to me.
First on the list is Touched By an Angel. Oh, how I adored this show during most of its run. Aside from starring Roma Downey, with whom I longed to run away to the Isles of the Blessed, it was produced by an open Christian, who made it a point to keep her angels (more or less) consistent with biblical descriptions. They were not the souls of dead people. They had no wings. And it was hinted, though not much dwelt on, that not only did heaven exist, but there was a bad place as well, where those who rejected God ended up. I understood that the realities of the business prevented them from saying anything specific about Jesus Christ. I appreciated the good parts. Continue reading Un-Touched By an Angel
Theft as Research: Magazine Steals Recipes from Various Sites
Ed Champion reports on the flagrant theft of copyrighted writing by a cooking magazine named Cooks Source. First, the food historian behind this 16th century apple pie article noticed that her article was printed without permission in the magazine. She asked about it and was asked if she didn’t want it published, since it was already online. Once Champion learned about it, he looked for other copy-n-pasted articles in the magazine and found at least five definite instances and several possible ones.
PW Best of 2010
Publisher’s Weekly has ten of their picks for best books this year. Here’s one. The Surrendered
Friday Fight: Sparring
By popular demand, we reintroduce the Friday Fight. Today, let’s warm up a bit.
This was uploaded a couple months ago by the Skjaldborg group.
Epstein on the Acute Slouching of Literary Culture
Joseph Epstein talks about T.S. Eliot’s life and reflects on modern literary culture. “Literary culture itself, if the sad truth be known, seems to be slowly but decisively shutting down.”
Bipedal again
I’m low on inspiration tonight. It’s been a while since I did a book review, but the book I’m working on is taking time. It’s not bad, but not great either, plus it’s quite long. And I’ve been catching up on my magazine reading during my breaks at work, rather than hitting the fiction (my magazine load will be lighter in the future; I’m dropping Smithsonian. They’ve been edging leftward, in my estimation, and the age of the internet has provided me alternate sources of obscure information).
I haven’t mentioned yet that I’m off the cane. The doctor told me to keep the weight off the knee, and take anti-inflammatories, for two weeks, then see how it went without visible means of support. And so far it’s going fine, but I’m watching for sudden structural fatigue. I probably won’t be taking any exercise walks until spring. And it would be a good idea (my doctor hinted, oh so diplomatically) if I took off a few pounds.
I did some research on canes, by the way, and learned that there’s a difference between a cane and a walking stick. Canes are an English thing, because the traditional English cane is made of malacca, which is a strong tropical cane. We Americans make our supports out of wood, so we call them walking sticks.
Actually we call them canes, but apparently we shouldn’t.
My cane is made of metal. I’m not sure what I’m supposed to call that. A walking pipe?
Rock Point Books Is Closing
Rock Point Books, an independent bookstore in downtown Chattanooga, is closing next month. They had good author readings at one time. They say the economy weighed them down too much to stay afloat. No word on whether federal stimulus money will be used to save the jobs lost here.
(Photo by Larry Miller/Flickr)