| Home ▪ Archives ▪ Gallery ▪ About me |
Awesome performance from Muse at Glastonbury right now, live on the web and on BBC3 for those who couldn't make it there! God it's good... playing New Born... the crowd is crazy!!! Now Plug in Baby is BLOWING us all away!!!... Ending with an out-of-this-world Stockholm Syndrome!!!
'How's it going, Glastonbury?! Good to see ya!'
Four books about the future of our world caught my attention recently, touching on the sensitive issues of energy, climate change and global security.
The End Of Oil, Paul C. Roberts
On oil dependency, disminishing reserves, the transition to other energy sources and the consequences on our economy, political system and way of life. How will we break our addiction to oil? And what will we use in its place to maintain a global economy and political system that is entirely dependent on cheap, readily available energy? In this book, Paul Roberts shows what is likely to happen, why the transition is likely to be complicated, traumatic and dangerous and suggests how and where the coming battle will be fought, and what victory will mean for ordinary people. 
High Tide: News from a Warming World, Mark Lynas
On the impact of climate change around the world, using scientific evidence and vivid examples affecting people and how they are coping to adapt to the new reality. From houses being washed over by sand in China to the thawing of the Alaskan Arctic, the author witnesses some of the worst impacts of climate change at first hand. Some, like the floods in the UK, are near home. Others - like the drowning Pacific island of Tuvalu - are a world away from the car tailpipes and factory chimneys that are causing global warming in the first place. 
An Abrupt Climate Change Scenario and its Implications for United States National Security, Peter Schwarz and Doug Randall
Based on plausible climate change scenarios, evaluates the impact of global warming on Earth's human carrying capacity and consequences for global stability. The report explores how such an abrupt climate change scenario could potentially de-stabilize the geo-political environment, leading to skirmishes, battles, and even war due to resource constraints such as:
1) Food shortages due to decreases in net global agricultural production
2) Decreased availability and quality of fresh water in key regions due to shifted precipitation patters, causing more frequent floods and droughts
3) Disrupted access to energy supplies due to extensive sea ice and storminess
Remaking Our Everyday World for the Twenty-First Century, James Howard Kunstler
On the changes in lifestyle in America required to adapt to a changing energy and climate reality. In The Geography of Nowhere James Howard Kunstler visited the "tragic sprawlscape of cartoon architecture, junked cities, and ravaged countryside" America had become and declared that the deteriorating environment was not merely a symptom of a troubled culture, but one of the primary causes of American discontent. In Home from Nowhere Kunstler not only shows that the original American Dream - the desire for peaceful, pleasant places in which to work and live - still has a strong hold on imaginations, but also offers innovative, eminently practical ways to make that dream a reality.
If all goes well, on Monday, 21 June, in Mojave, CA, at 6.30am local time, a high-altitude jet aircraft will fly to around 50,000 feet and from there a rocket, SpaceShipOne, and its pilot will launch into space. The flight would bring the craft's maker, Scaled Composites, a step closer to winning the $10 million X-Prize.
According to the Economist, the timing of the launch could not be better, coming just a few days after the publication, on Wednesday, of a report commissioned by President Bush, calling for a drastic overhaul of NASA - including a much bigger role for private firms in space exploration.
Market sizing research by the Futron Corporation, an aerospace consultancy, suggest that suborbital space travel is a promising market. It projects that by 2021, more than 15,000 passengers could be flying annually, with revenues in excess of $700 million. How much will holiday flights into space cost? The talk currently tentatively centres on a ticket price of about $100,000.
But the challenges to enable an industry to emerge reside with the regulatory aspects on the one hand, and with the needed culture change in the public sector on the other hand, whose failings may be epitomised by the recent awarding of a $227 million contract without an open tender to a company who has filed for bankruptcy and is said to be staffed mostly by former NASA employees.
Presidential candidate John Kerry has also made the Bush space vision part of his campaign, criticising it for not making sure that sufficient resources are available to carry out the objectives.
(PS: On 21 June 2004, Mike Melvill writes himself into history as the pilot of the first commercially funded vehicle to escape the earth's atmosphere.)
Apres un bref passage a Paris, je suis maintenant a Cambridge avec Jon pour quelques jours... il fait beau et chaud, les etudiants celebrent la fin des examens, c'est la belle vie! Hier, soiree passee au bord de la riviere et aujourd'hui, garden party et match foot de table...
La copine de Jon m'a demande ce que je voulais faire maintenant (puisque mes etudes sont terminees). Je lui ai repondu 3 plans parmis lesquels je suis en train de choisir. A la fin de mon explication, Jon et elle ont echange un clin d' oeil complice (du genre, "tu vois, je te l'avais dit"). J'ai demande ce qu'il y avait, et elle m'a repondu: "Rien, c'est juste que tu sais tellement ce que tu veux faire, normalement on a aucune idee quand on fini et on bosse une annee au supermarche avant de se decider!". J'etais tres surpris d'entendre ca, moi qui croyais etre le moins au clair de tous! A moi de leur prouver raison maintenant!
A Paris, j'ai pu passer quelques instants dans le monde de ma cousine. J'espere qu'il y en aura d'autres bientot...
Interet approfondi pour les theses scientifiques evoquees dans le film The Day After Tomorrow? L'article suivant est a recommander: GBN: Abrupt Climate Change.
My very dear cousin Jon is having a special day today. He is sitting an exam and celebrating his 20th birthday (not so sure in which order). So for both I wanted to wish you a very good time! I feel comfortable that given the size of your breakfast, you have all the strength you need to succeed in both hard examining and hard celebrating!
Rose.ph is where Philippe Rose blogs. One day I'll have my office on the Moon (in Borneo for now).
2011: January,
February,
March,
April,
May,
June
2010: January,
February,
March,
April,
May,
June,
July,
August,
September,
October,
November,
December
2009: January,
February,
March,
April,
May,
June,
July,
August,
September,
October,
November,
December
2008: January,
February,
March,
April,
May,
June,
July,
August,
September,
October,
November,
December
2007: January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December
2006: January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, December
2005: January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December
2004: January, February, March, April,
May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December
2003: December
| June 2004 | ||||||
| S | M | T | W | T | F | S |
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | ||
| 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 |
| 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 |
| 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 |
| 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | |||
Coup De
P-Manzh
Kottke.org
Indymedia
Dart Center
GMAT surfer
Registan.net
Ferghana.Ru
Disinfopedia
Ethereal Code
WorldChanging
Andrew Sullivan
Magnetic Kid Liv
David Brooks NYT
the 2011 bloggies!
Talking Points Memo
Questionable Content
Genferin und St Gallerin
�#Blogging Brits?�
"&
.?
.blog.domain
.#
.>
Philippe Rose
Running Greymatter | RSS