Okay, in the past week I've been running across what seems to be story after story about animal cruelty.  Take, for example, today's article about the Ministry of Defence ending goat testing on submarines.  WHAT? We've been giving goats the bends? For how long? Why is my taxpayer money funding this?

There was also a great New York Times story about rehabilitating the dogs that were rescued from Michael Vick's pitbull fighting ring.  The scale of the abuse is just mind-blowing - including one who had all her teeth pulled out so she could be forcibly mated with other dogs. I just can't imagine how people can do this to other critters; it's such a small step between animal abuse and sociopathy.  At least a lot of them have loving new homes with places like Best Friends Shelter and BADRAP.

Finally, in a somewhat perverse example of animals gettin' their own back, a number of workers in a pork processing facility have picked up an obscure and debilitating neurological illness from - you guessed it - aerosolized pig brains. Okay, you probably didn't guess that. Also, you might feel like barfing. I know I do. 

ETA: I forgot to add a link to the story of Puddles who rose from the dead as Panchito. Which goes to show that sometimes people love animals a little too much.

Promising new stuff via the Gristmill:

1. Nanosolar is shipping its first panels, which should work out to $0.99 a watt - cheaper than coal! We all knew it was only a matter of time.

2. A new paper has come out showing that wind energy can provide reliable baseload power with a smart grid. To be honest, I don't trust a big grid system (2003 NYC Blackout, anyone?) but it's nice to know that people are looking into it.

As RK Pachauri points out (yes, he gave me a hug in Bali), we already have the ability to cut emissions low enough to stave off catastrophe. What we're missing is political will.

Yes yes yes, I know I need to write about Fez but (a) I am lazy and (b) I am overworked, so I'm just going to do the briefest of brief news roundups.

First of all, the new SimCity Societies game takes climate change into account. Ooooooooooh. I wonder how many wind turbines I can build without imposing Sweden-style taxes. I haven't played a full game of SimCity since 1997, when it woke nurtured my inner dictator. If I bought it now, would I be able to resist playing it 24 hours a day?

Also, if you haven't seen a story about George the Giant Hedgehog, you have to visit the Wildlife Aid website right now. Then, if you're me, you'll dream of adopting yet another morbidly obese pet, and fantasize about volunteering there on the weekends and bottle-feeding the hedgehogs.

Finally, in a story that may make you spit blood, a Saudi Arabian 19 year old was gang-raped 14 times. Then she was sentenced to six months in jail and 200 lashes for being in the car of a man who wasn't a relative. This sort of thing actually makes me so homicidal it makes me want to bomb people. I'm an American, we do that.

HUZZAH! It's BLOG ACTION DAY!

Fortunately, BAD (ass) is about the environment, and so is my life (leaving aside my perpetual discussion of the false partition between 'environment', 'society', 'economy', etc. It's all the same ball of wax, people!). So, since this is a generally navel-gazing blog, this is what I'm up to:

The Application: My PhD application, to be precise. Soon to be referred to as 'the thing', because just talking/writing/thinking about it gives me new ideas for procrastination and avoidance. I suppose this is partly the result of crippling self-doubt, but it's also - given that the likelihood of getting in (one in TEN??? are you shitting me?) is so low, why am I sweating blood for an application that's likely to be yet another $65 fantasy? Especially when I'm halfway through the third season of Veronica Mars. I have promised Annie to give her a draft of the personal statements tomorrow, because I need to get a first draft done before taking it any further. Don't worry, I'm sure that if I fail I will do it publically.

Work: Mysteriously, I'm finally adding my $.02 (or 1p) to CAFOD's climate change campaign. It's a MIRACLE! I've written a quick brief on talking to climate skeptics (if you're looking for one, there's a fantastically thorough one on the Royal Society website) and am helping to coordinate resources on strategy. No love for my Bali jaunt, though. No 'official' work means no time off in lieu which means less time in Indonesia which means I owe them nothing. It's all SustainUS and exploring Seminiyak for me.

Travel: I am committing a great climate sin by flying to Morocco in less than a month, just to explore. I've decided to go to Fez, which is apparently the best preserved medieval Islamic city in the world. It's rather exciting. I am making up for this transgression by going to Bali to lobby the US delegation during the UNFCCC negotiations, which you can read about below. (DONATIONS STILL WELCOME AND BELOVED.) I've been reading a lot about Bali in addition to brushing up my rusty rusty knowledge of the UNFCCC negotiations. Oh, Nairobi Work Programme, how you confound me! Finally, I'm going to California for Christmas. Another sin, this time for love miles. I swear I will make this up someday.

Current consumerist existential crisis: Do I, or do I not, buy a Nikon D40? I've been wanting a proper camera for aaaages, and especially since I'm going to Fez and Bali* (and Cally of course) I'll want to record these amazing places. But it's a lot of money, especially because I'm already in debt over, well, the aforementioned globe-trotting. What's worse, being in debt, like, lots of debt (school loans, of course, exist independently of time and space and are disregarded for the purposes of this exercise), or having amazing pictures of places I may never see again? Oh, I am shallow.

*Interestingly enough, the old city of Fez is called Fez el Bali. Just thought I'd throw that in.

News Roundup

(Even) Boys' Education is sliding in Helmand
(gosh, it's a good thing we saved Afghanistan from the Taliban)

Children are starving in Burma/Myanmar (the real reason the monks are protesting)

The Good News: Green Goddesses on the Job in Lagos

And did everyone notice that Al Gore and the IPCC won the Nobel Peace Prize!?!?!? Rock! Even afterparty is excited. I went to a lecture with RK Pachauri once, he's totally adorable. And obsessed with trains.

Finally: In Memoriam

On August 13, Hannah, who spent the last 18 years giving me the most incredible, unbelieveable, unconditional love, passed into the afterlife of endless bunny chases and all the human food she could ever want to eat. Hannah was a creature of great wisdom and many moods.

Saintly ("I'm so good, don't you want to give me your peanut butter sandwich?")



Coy ("Oh come on now, you don't need that peanut butter sandwich.")



Action ("I will leap and dance in exchange for your peanut butter sandwich!")




Solicitous ("I am so concerned about that peanut butter sandwich's lack of a good home.")




She was endlessly manipulative, and even learned basic spelling (W-A-L-K, F-O-O-D, etc.). She greeted every day and everyone with joy and love and enormous satisfaction. I am still trying to learn that from her.

The Guardian has a very good article about how Nestle is still evil. So, while I miss Polos, After Eights, and Kitkats, I still can't live with the little stains they leave on my soul.

Also, there's an anti-Nestle protest being organised outside their headquarters and Body Shop outlets (Nestle is a major shareholder in L'Oreal, which bought out the body shop) this Saturday. For more info see the indefatigable campaigners at Baby Milk Action.

Why do I keep reading about Iraq? Absolutely nothing else puts quite the same damper on my cheerful moods.

The horrendous thing isn't (just) the report, it's the bit at the end which shows the people in the reconstruction office to be complete fucking idiots.

April 29, 2007
New York Times
Inspectors Find Rebuilt Projects Crumbling in Iraq
By JAMES GLANZ
( read more )

There's an article in the Guardian today about Starbucks' opposition to Black Gold, a film about the Ethiopian coffee industry. Ethiopia is trying to trademark three of its coffee lines, mostly to get a fairer price on the international market. Ethipoian coffee is some of the finest in the world, but the farmers get only a tiny fraction of the value of the coffee when it's exported - $1.10 when the coffee is sold for up to $160 as espresso. That's the coffee that is exported - most of it doesn't actually leave the country, because most small farmers either don't have access to markets (as the West Wing pointed out so trenchantly, no roads), or don't see export as worth their while.

With Starbucks trying so hard to be seen as an ethical retailer, I don't understand why they're working so hard to stop the trademarking process and opposing a film that doesn't even target them directly. Do they think people aren't going to find out about it? Their profit margins are so extremely high I'd think they could afford a little more for the premium coffee that they sell to their customers. Maybe they could take it out of their marketing budget.

Read the original article here
A paper on Starbucks' 'brand hypocrisy' - interestingly enough coming from the Said Business School

Best of Wonkette:

9:07 — So, our beaten nation now overwhelmingly believes we are losing the War On Terror — which is pretty awesome when you think about it, because it means Bush & Cheney have ultimately succeeded in linking 9/11 with Iraq!

9:17 — Actually, wages for the vast majority of Americans have been stagnant for the entire six years Bush has been president.
9:18 — Ohhhh, now he wants to balance the budget.
9:18 — “Without raising taxes” … what about the taxes on health care?
9:19 — Well, five years ago we didn’t even have a federal deficit.

9:27 — Oh great, now he’s going to screw up states’ attempts to provide health care for the poor. Sorry, California and Massachusetts.

9:29 — Oh man, the Republicans are going to KILL Bush over this guest worker thing. Luckily, he has Count Chertoff and the armies of vampires for protection.

9:45 — Or, we could find our resolve and impeach your ass.

10:00 — Jesus christ we were hoping this would last like 20 minutes. Anyway, we’re going to start a war on AIDS and malaria now, so expect Africans to start dying in even greater numbers now.

10:06 — God bless. Then he totally brushed across Pelosi’s chest on the way to the handshake. Now on to Webb firing a gun at his television or whatever.

There's a really useful article in the New York times today about the cost of the war in Iraq.

"For starters, $1.2 trillion would pay for an unprecedented public health campaign — a doubling of cancer research funding, treatment for every American whose diabetes or heart disease is now going unmanaged and a global immunization campaign to save millions of children’s lives.

Combined, the cost of running those programs for a decade wouldn’t use up even half our money pot. So we could then turn to poverty and education, starting with universal preschool for every 3- and 4-year-old child across the country. The city of New Orleans could also receive a huge increase in reconstruction funds.

The final big chunk of the money could go to national security. The recommendations of the 9/11 Commission that have not been put in place — better baggage and cargo screening, stronger measures against nuclear proliferation — could be enacted. Financing for the war in Afghanistan could be increased to beat back the Taliban’s recent gains, and a peacekeeping force could put a stop to the genocide in Darfur."

The accompanying graphic really makes it clear.

Universal health care? Or 350,000 dead people? In what universe can the people who made these decisions ever call themselves Christians?

Analysis by Scott Wallstein and Katrina Kosec (putting the cost at $1 trillion)
Analysis by Linda Blimes and Joe Stiglitz (putting the cost at $2 trillion)
In pictures: University Bombings

Edited to Add: John Edwards has a petition going to call on Congress to stop funding for the new troops. Sign it!

Scientists have invented an invisibility cloak

Also, why do gay animals still surprise people? Has nobody else ever seen that Discovery Channel video or lesbian octopuses getting it on? (Not that you can tell that's actually occurring at first, but conveniently there's a narrator.)

While I can't say I'm hugely surprised about Anna Politkovskaya's death - any time I so much as looked at one of her books I said to myself, 'gosh, I can't believe someone hasn't killed her' - I'm still shocked and upset by it. It bothers me that people are still killed, with impunity, for telling the truth. She's not the only one, but I've read her books and what she was reporting on was important and terrible. It's all too easy to forget that the war in Chechnya still goes on, because it's so tied into things that we want to ignore like oil and nationalism and Islamic fundamentalism and warlords. It's like a conflict from another age, but it's not, and I worry that now she's dead the people there will have no-one who is willing to put their life on the line to speak up for them.

Coverage in:
BBC News Online
Moscow Times
Guardian
New York Times

Will they get away with it? Probably.

Okay, so my computer is still broken, and I am still worried about my family, especially because my mom is ill and we don't know what it is. That said, I would like to celebrate the many things that make my life good, including:

1. Matt.

2. My friends.

3. I am going to Paris tomorrow! I have a free train ticket and a free beautiful place to stay, courtesy of Alison. As though those weren't riches enough, on the way out (tomorrow's late train), I have a first class ticket! They will give me champagne! I might actually pass out from excitement on the way there, but that would be a shame because then I would miss my delirious 2 1/2 hours of fancy-pantsness. I am going to spend four days doing whatever I want.

4. A very large, very stressful piece of work has been taken off my shoulders by a volunteer who specialises in monitoring and evaluation. Since talking to her half an hour ago I have joyfully punched both fists into the air three times. I feel like a whole week has been added to my life span.

5. A recently-hired collegue who I will have to work with a lot has turned out to be awesome! She is fun and cool and knowledgeable and will be great to work with. She is also snarky like me and her emails make me laugh!

6. I added an extra blanket to my bed (because it's freezing) and last night I had the warmest, coziest, soundest sleep ever.

Also, I have learned that yesterday was the 70th anniversary of the Battle of Cable Street. In 1936, the British Union of Fascists tried to march through the East End, protected by the police, and they were beaten back by a crowd of communists, leftists, Jews, and Irish dockyard workers. This is amazing! I will have to visit the memorial when I am back from Paris. The BBC has two articles up, one describing what happened and one looking back and trying to put it in context. No pasaran!

Reading about the 2006 mid-term elections make me wish I had stayed at home and become a Democratic staffer. It's so exciting. For example, Lieberman might lose the primary! All I know about Ned Lamont is that he's an incredibly rich businessman from Greenwich (urgh), but I have so longed to see Lieberman out on his ear I'd vote for the Governator instead of him. So good luck, Mr. Lamont, let's hope you're one of those trust-fund babies who stands up for the estate tax. (Which bloggers are starting to call The Paris Hilton Tax; if only the Democratic leadership would pick it up and run with it.)

Meanwhile, the New York Times (whose editorial page endorsed Lamont, god bless 'em) reports that the partisan divide on Iraq is starker than that over Vietnam. To which my first response was "how can there be that many Republicans supporting the war?" I mean, REALLY, how can you (a) have a brain (b) be even remotely in tune with the news and (c) still support the war? Granted, I haven't watched Fox News in a long time (Matt's mum has Sky so sometimes we watch it for fun/masochism when we're over there), but even if that's your only news source as long as the viewer has two thinking brain cells to rub together they must think all is not quiet on the Sunni Triangle front. Please someone agree with me before I cry.

Meanwhile, I was heartened by this evangelical pastor who says “When the church wins the culture wars, it inevitably loses. When it conquers the world, it becomes the world. When you put your trust in the sword, you lose the cross.” This guy's not a liberal, either. On the other hand, he lost 1/5 of his megachurch. Hm.

Finally, as everyone's electricity goes on the fritz because everyone's running their air con 24 hours a day, I like to remember that for a short, precious time California had the lowest per-capita energy consumption of any industrialised country on Earth. I feel all fuzzy and sentimental.

There's a thought-provoking article in the Nation this week about building links between different constituencies in the environmental movement in the US.

The unifying issue? Climate change.

But I worry that for all the optimism, this won't happen. The Apollo Alliance won't gain any traction before it's too late, the big enviros will continue to ignore the needs of people who are actually on the ground being affected by environmental problems, and funders don't want to give money to the little and medium organisations who are doing all the work on the street. I worry....

Yesterday was the hottest July day ever recorded.

My favorite part:
'BBC Midlands Today's weather team faced an unexpected problem on Wednesday - their graphics only featured temperatures as high as 32C and had to be remade with numbers up to 38.'

Good thing that climate change nonsense is all just a myth designed by fiendish scaremonger environmentalists looking for fat donations to their namby-pamby liberal charities.

Apparently the recently erupted warfare in the Middle East is an indicator that the Rapture is coming. What's even scarier is if you follow the link through to the Rapture Rady bulletin board, which includes additional pearls not mentioned in the article, such as:
--
Gosh!!! Things are happening at break neck speed it seems!

Here we (my dh & I) are making plans to move to the east coast and we might not even have to move after all.

I say, come quickly Lord!!!!
---
And, holy shit, that post actually includes one of those repugnant animated smiley faces being raptured.

Had a very pleasant weekend hanging out with friends from work (one of which is tragically being reclaimed by the convict paradise he calls home), as well as Matt's old school friends who are very good company. I was supposed to go to the V&A yesterday but couldn't because I think my hayfever is trying to take over my brain. Crawled out to see Miss jenbee, though, finally. Urgh. I'm not feeling well, and finally felt indulgent enough to let my extremely tired and snotty lazy self take a day off work. I have been lounging about with gusto but staying home is dull so while I can sit up I will probably take the opportunity to catch up on the 200 emails I still haven't dealt with.

Meanwhile, what is up with this new war? STOP IT, PUT DOWN YOUR WEAPONS... that didn't work in 2003, either, but I think it's important to register the sentiment. In other news, aid money is finally getting to Hurricane Katrina victims, albeit, er, a year too late. On the other hand, after seeing whole sections of Honduran cities washed away in 1998 and STILL not rebuilt (including chunks of Tegucigalpa city centre), I wouldn't look this $10 billion gift horse in the mouth.

The Tories have admitted that rail privatisation was stupid although they don't seem to have much of a plan for fixing the problem. Part of me thinks it's nice that they're admitting it whilst Labour blithely stick their fingers in their ears and sing 'laa laa laa'. The other part of me is recoiling in horror at the possibility that the Tories may have discovered effective populism and could become electable again.

In similar Tories-saying-sensible-things topsy-turvy style, it's HOT here. I mean, genuinely hot not the usual British 'oh my god it's a boiling 25 degreeeeeees!' (77 F). I like the fact that this is Big News. I have recently invested in a fan, and I am on the lookout for cheap ice cube trays. Emily has a nifty one which makes long thin ice cubes for sticking in water bottles. I want one of those. I wish I could enjoy the hot weather properly but there aren't any hammocks or pools nearby and the whole avian flu thing has made me wary of swimming in a river full of duck shit. I think I'll go lie down again.

Finally: "Ruin me! Govern me! Tax my stamps!"

Take This Internship and Shove It

A great article from the NY Times about the internship culture (I like Anya Kamenetz, she's very sound on young-people-class-debt issues).

I also think the whole internship thing has gone haywire - it DOES mean that the only people who can get hired for some jobs are the ones whose parents are ready, willing, and able to bankroll six months to a year, generally in an expensive city like New York, Boston, or Los Angeles. When I was doing UN stuff, I noticed that a lot of the people I was working with came from rich backgrounds, because there's almost no other way to afford an internship in New York or abroad. (Although if you go to a very wealthy school like Yale or Princetone they will sometimes pay for it as well - I didn't know this when applying for college.) It used to make me really angry sometimes.

Of course, I did my internships too, I just worked them into a schedule that also included coursework and a half-time job (and very little time for friends). I also managed to get lucky in summer and senior year and landed paid work. But I was never eligible for one of the really prestigious internships - Human Rights Watch, say - because they required you to work full time, for free, in New York City. Some of them were subsidised, but there would normally only be one stipend for every, oh, 300-400 applicants (I'm not exaggerating!).

There seems to be a lot less of this in the UK, but it's on the rise. At CAFOD, all internships are paid and have to be structured and attached to a specific project that the intern can work on and be evaluated on. But we don't have many of those - what we do have are volunteers, earnest just-graduates or former financial manager type who earnestly want to get their foot in the NGO door. And, er, I'm 'hiring' some this week. Maybe I should just gag my inner hypocrite now.

...in no particular order:

Paramedics ready for flying cheese injuries

An article ostensibly about the new JetBlue terminal, but also a very interesting discussion of movement and public space.

Like climate change wasn't bad enough before, apparently it's to blame for this year's seventh-level-of-hell hayfever season. Maybe I'll just start hocking ragweed-generated loogies onto chelsea tractors. Or writing 'Selfish climate changing bastard, I hope your beach house falls into the sea' with my streaming nose on their windshield.

(Sorry, was that gratuitous? Between the constant sneezing and feebly taking allergy pills the size of grapes... I'm irritable.)

Finally, an article from an old acquaintance, Nathan Wyeth, about why the summer canvass just ain't what it should be.
(Although, as someone who beat the pavement for Sierra Club and CalPIRG two summers in a row, I cannot remember anyone wanting to help beyond writing a check. Still, he makes some damn good points.)