Next steps

Posted on Friday, 12 April 2013 21:44 by David Gorsline

An intriguing piece from a few weeks back by Nicole LaPorte on Kenneth Lander’s THRIVE Farmers Coffee. THRIVE seeks to move beyond the fair trade co-op model, to capture more of the value added by the coffee supply chain (roasters, distributors) for the farmer who got the beans out of the ground in the first place. THRIVE farmers follow organic methods, although not all go through the process of USDA certification.

It’s a small operation now; it will be interesting to see whether it can scale up from its current annual volume, somewhat more than 300,000 pounds of coffee.

Posted in Agriculture, Economics and Business
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Refresher

Posted on Friday, 12 April 2013 21:29 by David Gorsline

Five words from Robbe-Grillet’s La Jalousie that I had to look up and probably have unlearned since high school:

en revanche
on the other hand
demeurer
to remain
quelconque
any, with connotations of ordinary, banality; n’importe lequel
écarter
to spread open
la paroi
interior partition, wall
Posted in Fives, Personal Development
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Proposed screening

Posted on Saturday, 6 April 2013 18:48 by David Gorsline

Our friend Lizzi writes:

Girl Rising

So I will start by confessing that this IS a mass email asking you to support a good cause, but please read because all I am really asking you to do is sign up to see a movie, and who doesn’t love movies? My roommate and I have undertaken to bring a beautiful new film, Girl Rising, to the Majestic Stadium movie theater in Silver Spring on Thursday April 25th at 7:30 pm, but we need your help.

The film was created by 10×10, a global campaign to educate and empower girls. Girl Rising tells the stories of 9 girls from around the world who face and overcome – unbelievable obstacles on the path toward getting an education. Each girl’s story is narrated by a cast of great actresses, including Meryl Streep, Kerry Washington, Anne Hathaway, Salma Hayek, and Alicia Keyes (among others)– and the cinematography is stunning. I am truly excited to be part of helping to get this film screened (an effort that is happening across the country) and to be involved in a global effort for girls’ education.

You can watch the trailer here (it’s worth it, I promise!)

The film will only be screened at the Majestic if at least 100 people sign up to see it. You can sign up to buy a ticket for the movie here (not to worry, you will only be charged for your ticket if we succeed in booking the screening). We need 100 people by April 11th in order for them to screen the film, so please don’t wait to sign up!

A portion of Girl Rising ticket sales will help fund programs for girls’ education around the world, so seeing the film literally makes an impact on girls’ lives. For a mere $10 you get a night out at the movies and the the lovely warm feeling of knowing you’re contributing to positive change in the world. (A steal, I’m sure we can all agree). So get a group together (a BIG group), tell ALL your friends (please!) and come see a beautiful movie and be part of something special.

Posted in Film
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Enroute: 3

Posted on Saturday, 6 April 2013 18:15 by David Gorsline

I’m back with NPR for a short gig, working on- and off-site. As Scott Simon reported this morning, NPR is relocating from its Massachusetts Avenue, N.W. building (really two buildings stitched together: on the 5th floor, there’s a two-stair difference between the blunt end of the building and the Tiny Desk Concerts venue at the “skinny end” where Bob Boilen sits) to new digs on North Capitol Street.

countdownThe move is happening in phases; this posting in the elevator keeps everyone informed of the GO dates.

Posted in Like Life
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Nouveau

Posted on Sunday, 31 March 2013 15:15 by David Gorsline

A… demande ce qu’il y a de nouveau, aujourd’hui, sur la plantation. Il n’y a rien de nouveau. Il n’y a toujours que les menus incidents de culture qui se reproduisent périodiquement, dans l’une ou l’autre pièce, selon le cycle des opérations. Comme les parcelles sont nombreuses et que l’ensemble est conduit de manière à échelonner la récolte sur les douze mois le l’année, tous les éléments du cycle ont lieu en même temps chaque jour, et les menus incidents périodiques se répètent aussi tous à la fois, ici ou là, quotidiennement.

—Alain Robbe-Grillet, La Jalousie (1957)
Posted in Quotable
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This way

Posted on Tuesday, 26 March 2013 21:14 by David Gorsline

today's relic 1I was driving back from my dentist’s office and I found one of the old wayfinding signs directing drivers to what it now called Washington Dulles International Airport. I don’t know how old these signs are—perhaps they are of the same vintage as the original access road that was built to the airport, but probably not. I remember seeing one or two to the west of the airport, out U.S. Route 50, but I think that they are gone now. This one, on a relatively sleepy stretch of Little River Turnpike, perhaps has survived because it’s been a while since the road required widening.

today's relic 2So it took me two tries to get a serviceable image of the sign. And on my way home, I continued farther west, not following my usual path, and I found another one! Less sun-faded, but a little more scuffed up.

Posted in Local News and Views
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Hoyles Mill Conservation Park

Posted on Sunday, 24 March 2013 22:38 by David Gorsline

your basic boulderjust beneathCarole Bergmann led a walk across Hoyles Mill Conservation Park, home to one of the largest tracts of contiguous forest in Montgomery County. The park’s selling point is its geology, an underlying sill of diabase bedrock that isn’t that far below the surface, as the image on the right demonstrates.

Diabase is prized as a construction material. Its mafic chemistry and the thin soils translate into a forest community of mixed oaks with a fair amount of Virginia Pine and Eastern Red-cedar, but not much in the way of our usual hickories, maples, and Tuliptree. Uncommon oaks to be found here include Shingle Oak, Swamp White Oak, and Post Oak.

running coldWe found American Hazelnut (Corylus americana) in bloom on the far side of Little Seneca Creek, and the state rare Pricklyash (Zanthoxylum americanum) right at the entrance gate.

The special bird sighting for the day was a Downy Woodpecker working the upper branches of a Virginia Pine, hanging upside down. This is not the first time that I’ve seen a Downy acting like a songbird. Maybe I should start calling them Downy Chickadees.

Posted in In the Field
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Waiting

Posted on Saturday, 23 March 2013 18:14 by David Gorsline

FELIX. …I’ll find something, because I’ll tell you, Steven, I’ve got a little news flash for you: the world is not waiting for a play! Okay? The world is waiting to see who’s gonna go broke or blow what up next, and how many people are gonna get killed or go hungry, and in between people getting killed and people going broke, they just want somewhere cool to sit in the dark and be happy, you know, it could be Mistakes Were Made, it could be Mamma Mia, it could be fuckin’ Muppets, they don’t care!

—Craig Wright, Mistakes Were Made
Posted in Quotable, Theater
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Gone

Posted on Friday, 22 March 2013 17:53 by David Gorsline

Wednesday’s poem at Poetry Daily is a killer, “Things That Have Changed Since You Died:”, by Laura Kasischke.

…We

send each other mail without stamps.

Posted in Poetry
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At the park: 56

Posted on Wednesday, 20 March 2013 19:47 by David Gorsline

Snips from my report on nest box activity for the past two weeks:

Lots of activity! And as usual, not always the boxes one would expect. As of last Sunday, we have at least one egg in eleven of the boxes, although the single egg in #62 looks like it may be a dud.

10 March

Target species observed: Northern Shoveler, American Wigeon, Northern Pintail, Green-winged Teal (30), Gadwall (8)

Water gauge: 0.28

17 March

Target species observed: Northern Shoveler, Green-winged Teal, Gadwall

Water gauge: 0.35

Eastern Phoebes were heard throughout the wetland. I heard Brown-headed Cowbird tinkling in the parking lot. Tiny, tight buds of Spring Beauty could be found.

Here’s the status of each of the boxes:

  • #2: –
  • #4: 3 WD eggs
  • #10: at least 4 HM eggs; hen flushed 3/17
  • #77: –
  • #7: –
  • #6: 1 WD egg
  • #84: 3 HM egs
  • #1: 17 HM eggs: incubating
  • #3: –
  • #13: 6 HM eggs
  • #67: 7 HM eggs
  • #60: 4 WD eggs
  • #62: 1 WD eggs
  • #5: –
  • #61: 1 HM egg
  • #68: 9 WD eggs, 1 HM egg; incubating

I think we should skip checking #1 and #68; it would be good to get a count for box #10, but the hen in there may sit tight.

Posted in In the Field
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Yuck

Posted on Tuesday, 19 March 2013 11:50 by David Gorsline

The supply of recycled CRTs and televisions, laden with hazardous lead, is booming. Unfortunately, the demand for this e-waste has crashed. As a result, recycling firms are going out of business and abandoning the waste, leaving toxic dumps for the states and federal government to clean up. The market is upside down.

In 2004, recyclers were paid more than $200 a ton to provide glass from these monitors for use in new cathode ray tubes. The same companies now have to pay more than $200 a ton to get anyone to take the glass off their hands.

Even worse, there seems to be no recycling market at all for LCD screens.

Ian Urbina does the grim reporting.

Posted in Recycling and Sustainability, Tools and Technology
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Opening

Posted on Sunday, 17 March 2013 14:07 by David Gorsline

Something that you don’t hear top-drawer religious leaders say:

Given that many of you do not belong to the [faith], and others are not believers, I give this blessing from my heart, in silence, to each one of you, respecting the conscience of each one of you, but knowing that each one of you is a child of God…. May God bless you.

Well, hardly ever.

And also with you, Holy Father.

Posted in Philosophy, Yeah Yeah Yeah
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Upcoming: 32

Posted on Saturday, 16 March 2013 21:20 by David Gorsline

Brood II of the 17-year cicada is expected to emerge in Virginia this spring.

Posted in Natural Sciences
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[click]

Posted on Friday, 15 March 2013 18:35 by David Gorsline

Ian Bogost ends a call:

Hanging up on someone is a physical act, a violent one even, one that produces its own pleasure by discharging acrimony…. Just try to hang up your iPhone or your Samsung Galaxy. I don’t mean just ending a call, but hanging up for real, as if you meant it. For a moment you might consider throwing the handset against a wall before remembering that you shelled out three, four, five hundred dollars or more for the device, a thing you cradle in a cozy as if it were a kitten or a newborn.

Posted in Annoyances
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Stories I missed: 1

Posted on Wednesday, 13 March 2013 15:59 by David Gorsline

From last summer, Joe Palca’s two-parter (one, two) about Scott O’Neill’s 20-year efforts to find a biological means to control and eventually eliminate dengue fever. I like the focus of Palca’s series: it’s not just about the newest published scientific results, it’s about the process of doing science.

“You know, I was incredibly persistent in not wanting to give this idea up,” O’Neill said. “I thought the idea was a good idea, and I don’t think you get too many ideas in your life, actually. At least I don’t. I’m not smart enough. So I thought this idea was a really good idea.”

Posted in Health and Medicine, Natural Sciences
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