The ice storm we had on Monday brought down a bunch of trees and felled several power lines. We're ok, but friends who live in leafy neighborhoods didn't fare so well.
One of my colleagues bought a car on Saturday. His new car and old car (he was planning to use it for parts) were both parked on their driveway. A tree limb fell across the driveway, totaling the new car, but leaving the old car pretty much unaffected. Insurance is covering it, fortunately. Some other friends have spent the past two days clearing out all the fallen branches. Half the traffic lights in the central (older) part of town are still out. Our daughter's daycare lost its power and hasn't got it back yet.
The school district took this as the excuse to cancel school for three days in a row. Monday, I worked from home, but I couldn't keep doing that. I'm currently subsetting and processing several hundred gigabytes of satellite data for a rainfall nowcast validation experiment. Such work doesn't travel very well, so Tuesday and Wednesday, the kids have come to work with me. The 5-yr old pretty much occupies himself, but the 3-yr old needs attention periodically.
"It's so easy for them to cancel to school," I commented to a colleague.
"And so hard for us to cancel work," he empathized.
Excerpts from Al Gore's Speech in Oslo
Excerpts from Al Gore's Nobel acceptance speech:
One of the very first winners of the Prize in chemistry worried that, "We are evaporating our coal mines into the air." After performing 10,000 equations by hand, Svante Arrhenius calculated that the earth's average temperature would increase by many degrees if we doubled the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere.
But unlike most other forms of pollution, CO2 is invisible, tasteless, and odorless--which has helped keep the truth about what it is doing to our climate out of sight and out of mind. Moreover, the catastrophe now threatening us is unprecedented and we often confuse the unprecedented with the improbable.
We must abandon the conceit that individual, isolated, private actions are the answer. They can and do help. But they will not take us far enough without collective action.
... most important of all, we need to put a price on carbon--with a CO2 tax that is then rebated back to the people, progressively, according to the laws of each nation, in ways that shift the burden of taxation from employment to pollution. This is by far the most effective and simplest way to accelerate solutions to this crisis.
A familiar view unfamiliar
This is the photograph that caught my attention . It's the view from the bottom of stairs leading down to a temple pond or up to a temple. Many Indians carry food with them to temples and have a picnic lunch. The stainless steel "carrier" that the old lady is carrying probably just that. So, this is a view that I've encountered hundreds of times. Yet, it got me. I never quite "saw" it before.
Maybe it's living in super-patriotic Oklahoma. But the red-and-white stripes and their obvious parallel with the American flag were startling.
I encountered the photograph via this blog by a Mumbai art director. That's where I saw these engrossing paintings as well. The paintings borrow their sense of proportion and layout from the Tanjore style of paintings but avoid the Tanjore paintings' over-the-top gold overlays. And somehow, these paintings of ordinary country folk add dignity to the people they portray.
Taking the umbrella for a test drive in freezing rain
The three-year old developed a fascination with umbrellas this summer when we had enough rain to make 2007 the wettest year on record. So, when I saw a cute ladybug one in Chicago a couple months ago, I brought it back for her. She's been hankering to use the umbrella since then, but the weather didn't cooperate. No rain since the time I bought the umbrella.Until today ... only the temperature is hovering around 32F (zero celsius) and so, we are getting freezing rain. The rain that fell overnight has iced up. The grass crunches as you walk on it. One of the elms in our front yard has doubled over from the weight.
But the 3-year old woke up, took one look through the window and squealed that she wanted her umbrella. I didn't have the heart to object.
Santa among the dinosaurs
The local natural history museum ("the world's largest apatosaurus") had a Christmas party yesterday evening. Kids could have a picture taken with Santa and make paper Christmas tree ornaments. I took the kids there -- beats taking them to the mall!
The 5-year old was quite talkative all the way.
"How far is the North Pole?," he asked.
"About 5000 miles," I told him.
"How long does it take Santa to get here?"
"If he comes in a sleigh that flies through the air, he can get here really fast."
"That's a fake Santa," he said a little later, while we were in line.
"Why do you say that?"
"Santa wears white gloves, not red ones."
"Maybe he has two pairs of gloves?"
A couple of kids dressed as dinosaurs came walking by. "That's a velociraptor," he enthused. "Looks like a T. Rex to me," I suggested. "No, it's a vel-o-ci-rap-tor," he insisted.
"Can't tell him any different," smiled the guy in line behind me.
"He is wearing regular glasses. Santa doesn't wear regular glasses."
"OK"
The possible fakeness of the Santa didn't stop him from asking Santa for a Transformer. The 3-year old asked for a baby doll.
Later, in the car, coming home, he wasn't willing to let the matter drop.
"It was not a real Santa," he said, "the real Santa doesn't talk, he only says 'Ho Ho Ho'.".
The 5-year old was quite talkative all the way.
"How far is the North Pole?," he asked.
"About 5000 miles," I told him.
"How long does it take Santa to get here?"
"If he comes in a sleigh that flies through the air, he can get here really fast."
"That's a fake Santa," he said a little later, while we were in line.
"Why do you say that?"
"Santa wears white gloves, not red ones."
"Maybe he has two pairs of gloves?"
A couple of kids dressed as dinosaurs came walking by. "That's a velociraptor," he enthused. "Looks like a T. Rex to me," I suggested. "No, it's a vel-o-ci-rap-tor," he insisted.
"Can't tell him any different," smiled the guy in line behind me.
"He is wearing regular glasses. Santa doesn't wear regular glasses."
"OK"
The possible fakeness of the Santa didn't stop him from asking Santa for a Transformer. The 3-year old asked for a baby doll.
Later, in the car, coming home, he wasn't willing to let the matter drop.
"It was not a real Santa," he said, "the real Santa doesn't talk, he only says 'Ho Ho Ho'.".
Working at home
Years ago, pre-kids, I used to volunteer for Habitat for Humanity. It felt good to be doing something with my hands and the only other thing I would have done on a Saturday morning would have been to sleep in. Whatever I know about building houses, I learned at Habitat ... which is to say ... not much. One thing I did learn, though, was to be thankful that I did such work only half a day a week. Five days a week, I had interesting work, done sheltered from the elements, and not involving manual labor. It's a wonderful thing.
What brought this back to mind was that we are getting wood floors installed in our home. The wife's wanted wood floors for a long time (we had wood in all our formal areas, but now we're converting all the bedrooms as well). Why? Her allergies had been getting worse year-after-year. So, as one of my friends put it, she essentially came home with a prescription for wood floors. Pity that Aetna won't cover it.
While the installers are working, the wife and I have been taking turns working at home.
"So," the foreman asked me, "do you work some days and your wife works other days?".
"No," I told him, "since we have internet access, we can pretty much work at home if we need to. I've been working from home since you guys are here. I go to the office every afternoon so that I can talk to my colleagues."
"Must be nice," he said, "I can't do that with my job."
"Not unless you want to keep installing a new wood floor in your home every week."
What brought this back to mind was that we are getting wood floors installed in our home. The wife's wanted wood floors for a long time (we had wood in all our formal areas, but now we're converting all the bedrooms as well). Why? Her allergies had been getting worse year-after-year. So, as one of my friends put it, she essentially came home with a prescription for wood floors. Pity that Aetna won't cover it.
While the installers are working, the wife and I have been taking turns working at home.
"So," the foreman asked me, "do you work some days and your wife works other days?".
"No," I told him, "since we have internet access, we can pretty much work at home if we need to. I've been working from home since you guys are here. I go to the office every afternoon so that I can talk to my colleagues."
"Must be nice," he said, "I can't do that with my job."
"Not unless you want to keep installing a new wood floor in your home every week."
A neat map
We have a 1860 map of Asia hanging in our living room. It's from the centerfold of a book and the neat thing about that map (besides the arcane naming of countries and British colonies) is that it was made in New York. In 1860, most maps of Asia would have been made in Europe. But this map was commissioned by the U.S. Congress and drawn in New York.
Here is another map
that gets its value from its association with America. Of course, it's a million times more expensive than the one in our living room. In fact, it is the most expensive art item that the Library of Congress has ever acquired -- so expensive and treasured that it is stored in a vault similar to the one that houses the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence.
Why would the Library of Congress pay $100 million dollars for this map? Because, it's the first ever map that carried the word "America". And of course, the name was a mistake. It was made by Waldseemüller, a German cartographer who mistakenly thought that Amerigo Vespucci had discovered America.
Here is another map
that gets its value from its association with America. Of course, it's a million times more expensive than the one in our living room. In fact, it is the most expensive art item that the Library of Congress has ever acquired -- so expensive and treasured that it is stored in a vault similar to the one that houses the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence.Why would the Library of Congress pay $100 million dollars for this map? Because, it's the first ever map that carried the word "America". And of course, the name was a mistake. It was made by Waldseemüller, a German cartographer who mistakenly thought that Amerigo Vespucci had discovered America.
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