The revolution always eats its own.
Direct Air Capture
An interesting technical development on the CO2 front. But this response from “environmentalists” is telling:
Some climate campaigners are positive about the development of direct air capture technology, but others are worried that it will be used to prolong the fossil fuel era.
“It’s a huge concern,” Tzeporah Berman, international programme director for Stand dot earth, told BBC News.
“We need to be working together to figure out how we move away completely from fossil fuel – that’s our moral and economic challenge but these technologies provide a false hope that we can continue to depend on fossil fuels and produce and burn them, and technology will fix it – we are way past that point!”
Others are concerned that the development of direct air capture devices may just encourage some people to think that they don’t have to personally reduce their carbon footprint.
“I think there’s a real danger that people will see this technology as a magic bullet and not cut back their carbon,” said Shakti Ramkumar, a student at the University of British Columbia (UBC), who is active in climate change protests.
“We have a moral responsibility to reduce our consumption on a large scale. We need to reflect deeply on how we live our lives and whether everyone can have access to the things we have, and fairness, so we can all live a good life.”
Why, it’s almost as though they hate cheap energy, and want to run others’ lives, and don’t really care about carbon dioxide.
Yet Another Broadband Constellation
Amazon is entering the race, with a plan for over 3000 satellites.
It’s going to get crowded up there, if all these happen.
SLS And Moon In 2024
The Highwaymen
There’s apparently a new flick out about the guys who finally got Bonnie and Clyde. Lileks reviews the reviews.
The Indian ASAT Test
Yes, the U.S. response should have been more firm.
Questions Of Science
…when they brook no dissent. Thoughts on the climate echo chamber in the Academy.
Gershwin And Ravel
We went to Disney Hall for the first time on Sunday, for a concert. I’d been wanting to do it since it was built, to hear the acoustics first hand. They were great, though there’s obviously no way to A-B them with (e.g.) the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, which was the previous home for the LA Philharmonic.
Anyway, it was an interesting concert, with a lecture beforehand, in which I learned that Gershwin had once asked Ravel (who was a quarter of a century his senior) if he would give him composing lessons. There are two stories of his response: The first is that Ravel said that he should prefer to be a first-rate Gershwin to a second-rate Ravel; the second (more likely accurate) was that he asked Gershwin how much money he’d made in the last year, and when informed that it was a hundred thousand (in 1920s dollars), he said that he should be taking lessons from him.
I also learned that while Gershwin later orchestrated his own music, Rhapsody in Blue was orchestrated by Ferde Grofé (of Grand Canyon Suite fame), more than once. We also heard the first recording of it, converted from a wax cylinder, with a very different take on the opening clarinet solo.
Finally, I learned that Irving Berlin couldn’t read or write music, and that Gershwin was one of his writers. Also that Berlin used only the black keys, and played everything in F#, but his custom piano enabled it to automatically transpose to other keys.
The concert itself was Gershwin’s Cuban Overture, followed by Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G, with the French soloist Hélène Grimaud, whom I’d never heard before, or of, but she was fantastic attacking the keys in the first and third movements, and beautiful in the gentle adagio.
After the intermission, the orchestra played Ravel’s La Valse, then concluded the performance with a spectacular American in Paris, which I’d never heard performed live before, featuring some lovely solos by the concertmaster, a woman who appeared to be of Chinese (or some other Asian) descent.
It was a little pricey, but we greatly enjoyed the show, and should do things like that more often as, like everyone else, we aren’t getting any younger. At least not yet.
Viagra Spam
Any guesses as to why this post is attracting so much of it?
We Need To Increase The Rate
Repairing all of the structurally deficient bridges in the country would take eighty years. And many of the worst are in California. This is a sign of a major societal dysfunction.