Weather Books

The next title I've been reading is The Winds of Change by Eugene Linden, which is the little sister of The Weather Makers (at least in terms of press coverage). I found an amazing quote in this book, about colonialism in India and about the mismanagement by the British during a drought in 1877 brought on partly by El Nino.

"As the drought gathered intensity, Temple decided to criminalize the urge to help one's fellow man, by making it illegal in the state of Madras to give relief donations that might interfere with the price of grain on the markets. His contributions to history, however, was the Temple wage, a supposedly scientifically derived ration that would sustain men doing heavy labor. That wage, one pound of rice per day, was half what felons received in Indian prisons. Unsupplemented by meat or vegetables, it provided 1,627 calories a day, which, Davis offers, is only 127 calories more than an adult consumes each day while in a coma, 123 calories less than the starvation rations of the Nazi death camp Buchenwald and more than 2,200 calories less than the approved diet for an Indian male doing heavy labor today. The inmates of these camps were not only supposed to survive on these rations, but also build railroads and canals. The results were predicatble. Grown men shrank to 60 pounds. By one calculation, the deaths each month in the camps annualized to a rate of 94 percent."

What a contrast to my last post. As Linden points out in his book, an El Nino is a minor climate change blip compared to what can possibly happen. If North America gets just a mere 10 years of drought, how would life be different?

So speaking of climate change, here's an interesting way to raise funds: Climatecare.org.

Too much meat

It's graduation time and Frank came back from the Island. To celebrate a bunch of old friends went to dinner at Memphis Blues. I've never been but I've heard lots about it. I'm also not a big meat eater. We ordered the Elvis platter. So if you know the place you know what not big meat eater + Elvis platter equals. Bleh. That was probably equivalent to my meat consumption for a month. It was tasty enough though and great to be out with friends. The lineup started shortly after we arrived, good tip to be there at 6 for dinner Shawn.

Afterwards it was a game of Settlers (Wes won). I haven't played this wonderful game in a long time. I even had my parents play it. I know I've gone on about this game before but if you're interested, here's the wikipedia entry.

And a note for Frank: got Enlightenment working. Something about Ubuntu/Gnome and failing to make the menu automagically. Ok, enough geeking out.

That picture from Ontario

A nice sunny Ontario day watching my dad fly a kite.

Life in Ontario

Well, back in Ontario for a few days. The weather has been crap, it turned crap just for me when I came home. However, I did get to eat tons and tons and tons which is fantastic. I always love it when I don't have to cook!!!!! Look for more pictures some day.

More linux geeking

Well, I have the 'new' computer system up and running. I am running Ubuntu with Gnome (Ubuntu is the linux core flavour and Gnome is the graphical user interface). So I really like the system but its like standard car. You had better like putting in a bit of extra work because it doesn't drive itself. You would need to accept a learning curve and it probably still isn't ready for people who are afraid of the command line. I've had the system crash occasionally, and not recognize CDs burned under windows. However, I have DVD burning up and running no problem and the community is generally supportive for trying to learn stuff. Anyway, I am experimenting with a blog posting program so I don't have to log into blogger to post. There's certainly lots to play with.