Ship of Fools

The book cover hooked my eye. I didn't know that the author, Richard Paul Russo, had won the Philip K. Dick Award for this work, his second. I'd never even heard of him. I was looking for someone new to try so I read the back cover.

No one remembers where they came from or where they're going. For hundreds of years, the starship Argonos, home to generations of humans, has wandered throughout the galaxy, searching for other signs of life. Now, a steady, unidentified transmission lures them toward a nearby planet.

The colony has vanished. But deep within the planet's steamy jungles, the exploration team finds horrible evidence of its fate.

Once more, a signal lures the crew of the Argonos. Haunted by what they have seen, they have no choice but to follow - deep into space, where an alien mystery awaits...

"Interesting," I thought. So I bought it. But the book really wasn't about all that. Oh sure, it's the story, but it's not what the book is about. Despite the fact that the book won the Philip K Dick Award in 2001, it turned some people off. Including this guy. While I don't agree with his conclusions, he makes several good points that I won't refute. He's right about the story but not what the book is about. What the book really is about, IMO, is about our beliefs.

The story is told from the viewpoint of one man: Bartolomeo Aguilera. He was born with several physical deformities: stunted arms, a damaged spine and a club foot. He makes up for it through the use of prosthetics and a metallic exoskeleton. He's a negative athiest who's intrigued by Father Veronica (yes, a woman priest), her faith in particular.

"I understand hypocrites, like the bishop, and I understand fanatics, or at least I can more easily predict their behavior, which is much the same thing, as far as I am concerned. But I admit I did not know what to make of true believers like Father Veronica. Her belief, her faith, was both profound and real. Her faith disturbed me."

Bartolomeo and Veronica are among the team sent down to the mysterious planet to investigate the source of the signal and the fate of the colony there. The two spend time together and slowly, over the course of the story, Father Veronica reveals a bit more of her faith to him. He also finds himself falling in love with her. In fact, since Bart isn't a member of the crew (he's the captain's advisor, a political position), he's free to dwell on these things while everyone else is engaged in their work.

So how did Bart find himself in this crisis of belief systems? His aforementioned deformities resulted in his being abandoned at birth. He was raised by the upper class community of which his parents, though he doesn't know who they are, are a part of. No compassionate conservatives here. He spent his whole life trying to find his own path. His deformities kept him isolated from the others and he had few friends (the captain being one). His predicament is just like the Argonos, the generational starship that he lives on.

Over a century ago, there was a strange plague that drove a large percentage of the ship's population mad. In the ensuing chaos, there was alot of internal damage. Among the casualties were the historical records and navigational database. The ship has been lost since then and has no way of finding the other worlds that humans have colonized. They stumble upon habitable planets by accident. A star is chosen and they journey towards it and it's been 14 years since their last contact. An ill fated attempt by the bishop to play missionary to the masses of that world forced the Argonos to leave. So the ship keeps wandering around, lost, with no idea as to what its mission is or even its destination. Bart is merely the embodiment of that rudderlessness.

Bart learns that Father Veronica doesn't blindly follow her faith, nor is she the preaching type. She doesn't patronize, condescend or condemn. She questions her faith regularly and periodically steals herself away for introspection. I won't reveal Father Veronica's confession to Bart and spoil it for would be readers. Let's just say I found it to be intriguing. I'm sure that there are plenty people of faith who will disagree with what Russo has her say. And he certainly won't convince athiests to pick up a Bible. But it might give some people something to think about.

There's no point discussing many of the "real" plot elements. Russo leaves so many unanswered why's and how's that I can't see why I should bother. It's the faux story, which pissed some people off. The real story is Bart's quest for purpose, meaning, and belief. If the back cover was the real story, we would've been offered other viewpoints in the book. All of the major characters actions are revealed to us only through Bart's interaction with them. Reading Ship of Fools for the mystery teaser on the back cover is Russo's deceit to get readers to explore even deeper mysteries.

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DED

Neverwhere

I wasn't even going to write this post, as I didn't think it was going to be all that interesting to any of my three readers. But my brain thought otherwise and proceeded to dictate it to me at 2 AM. If I don't write this post, who knows what sort of retribution it will take out on my hide tonight.

I wasn't into comic books as a kid. Superheroes seemed lame. And the costumes were totally gay. The comic books themselves were poorly inked and the paper was the inspiration for two-ply toilet paper.

All that changed in college. I had a roommate one year who was into two things: sports and comic books. The former was totally believable as he was 6' 2" and anything but geeky, but the latter surprised me. Each week he'd take a portion of his stipend and spend it on comic books, while I was spending my Carrier Dome employee income on cheap vodka to wash away the pain of Thermodynamics and Equilibrium Staged Separations.

He agreed with me that the quality of comic books was seriously lacking in the 70's but that they were enjoying a resurgence. This was the late 80's. He had me read The Watchmen and Frank Miller's treatise of Batman in The Dark Knight and other works. I had to agree with him. These "graphic novels" were a far cry from the comic books of my youth. The stories told within were compelling. There was actually a writer involved that had taken the time to construct a plot and offer real characters. And it was evident to me that the illustrators were laboring to create art.

Fast forward to this decade. As a Christmas present one year, my wife decides to pick me up the first two volumes of The Sandman. She's certain that it would appeal to me.

And she was right. I've read 6 volumes now, and numbers 7 & 8 are awaiting me. I hope to get the remaining three this year.

Maybe some of you out there have already read Neil Gaiman's treatise of The Sandman. It is the work that launched his career as a writer. While I'd love to rattle on about this work, enough has been said already about how awesome it is. This post isn't about Sandman, it's about Gaiman's first novel: Neverwhere.

Maybe it's just me but Neverwhere doesn't seem to have the mind share that his later novels American Gods and Anansi Boys have. It's not to say that the novel wasn't good. I just think that his career hadn't snowballed enough by 1997, when the book came out, that people outside of his fan base paid much attention to it. After all, Gaiman was a comic book writer, not a novelist, and this was his first.

I stumbled upon Neverwhere in a local used book store last year. I hadn't heard of it either, nor had I ever seen it in any of the chain bookstores. Anyway, I decided to pick it up, along with a couple other books, of which another will be reviewed here later.

Yes, Gaiman can write novels. If you want to read a short synopsis of the story, read this and come back. Not having the artists from his Sandman days here to flesh out the scenery, Gaiman does it for us. His words paint London Below as a dark, damp, brooding place of fallen majesty. I half expected the Sandman himself to show up as the imagery conjured here mirrored that of the Dream King's universe. The characters are just as real with their flaws as those that we met in the Sandman series. And the tale that Gaiman weaves is just as suspenseful and imaginative.

My only complaint would be that it seemed to take just a little too long for the main character, Richard Mayhew, to get it. Perhaps that was Gaiman's intention. Maybe he wanted us to yell at Richard, "C'mon man! Don't you get it yet?!" I won't say he was annoying, but he was close to it a few times.

I believe that the story attempts to answer two questions: Can you really go home? If so, would you really want to?

All in all, a really good modern, urban fantasy. Definitely worth the read if you're a Sandman or Gaiman fan or if you're into stories with elements of suspense, horror (not gore), and modern fantasy (no elves).

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DED

Local Government In Business

Allstate announced late last year that they were no longer going to write home insurance policies for Connecticut, existing policies (like mine) would remain. According to their actuarial tables, CT is due for a hurricane and they don't want to feel the pain. Allstate already bailed on Florida. One has to wonder, why the hell is Allstate even in the insurance business if they're not going to insure homes in high risk areas. I mean, isn't that the point of insurance?

I've never been much of a fan of the whole concept of insurance. I blame it the high car insurance premiums I had to pay in my teens and twenties. My first car was a 73 Mercury Marquis. The insurance was over four times what I paid for the car itself! What was the point? I could understand having personal liability in case of injury to myself or someone else, but anything for the car itself was pointless.

Insurance companies are legally permitted to charge whatever they want based on risk of the insured. Car insurance companies are able to screw over young men because they're the most likely to get in a car accident. Living in Florida I could've sword it was old people. Anyway, the same principles apply to life and house insurance. Health insurance companies usually deal with pools of employees. If the company has a young workforce, they're going to have a lower rate than a company with lots of middle aged workers, especially ones that smoke.

For insurance companies that deal with insuring valuable properties, there's re-insurance. Think of it as insurance company insurance. This way when catastrophe strikes, an insurance company can get re-imbursed for its losses. But sometimes, even that's not enough. For example, in the aftermath of Hurricane Andrew, Florida created the Florida Hurricane Catastrophe Fund as an incentive for insurance companies to keep insuring homes in the state. It worked and the fund last until 2005 when it was depleted.

But now a Connecticut legislator wants to do the same thing. Allstate already has re-insurance in case its current CT clientele get hit. For any named storm causing at least $114 million in damage in Connecticut, Allstate is eligible to recoup losses on every dollar thereafter, up to a total of $200 million. But with CT's coastline valued at $405 billion, Allstate feels that they've got enough marketshare.

Now one might think that this is a good idea. I don't. "The pool would be funded through property insurance premiums, and one-third of any interest earned on the trust would be rolled over to police and emergency services." So does that mean my current policy goes up because Allstate is getting weak in the knees? And I'm not sure that some tax dollars or money from CT's "rainy day fund" won't find their way in. Let Allstate go. CT is the insurance capital of the country, right? Someone's gonna come in and fill the void. They might charge an arm and a leg but eventually the marketplace will work its way through. I think that CT's state government has more important things to worry about, like disaster preparedness. Apparently 9/11 and Katrina didn't sink in.

I'm not a fan of the government using taxpayer money to bail out businesses. I was fine with letting the airlines go under after 9/11. They did anyway. Those that have come out of bankruptcy are looking pretty good, at least as far as Wall Street is concerned. American Airlines' parent company, AMR, has a stock price in the 40's!

While businesses don't mind being bailed out by the government, they certainly object to the government stepping in to do the jobs they won't. For example, a couple years ago the city of Philadelphia thought that it would be a good idea to provide low cost wireless internet access to residents in areas that network providers won't go to. But the Verizon and Comcast objected. If you're interested, you can read the debate here.

Now this doesn't bother me so much. The city is stepping in to fill a void that will greatly benefit its citizens. And Philadelphia is partnering with Earthlink, who will bear the network installation costs so the cost burden on its tax payers is minimal. Yes, this really isn't a pure government as business play, but that's a good thing. The city found a solution that appears to work for everyone.

So how are these two situations different? In the first example, government is offering to bail out a business at their customers' expense (but hopefully not taxpayer expense). In the second example, government is offering a service to its citizens that businesses won't provide, and a business is picking up the tab. Which sounds ok to you?

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DED

Beer In Review: Compare and Contrast

Winter finally showed up this week. The temperature dropped to seasonal averages and a few flurries actually managed to coat the ground. Not much, but it's a start. The cold air invigorates me as it enters my lungs. My stomach then demands something equally invigorating, so I satisfy it with some porter.

Now not all porters are the same. You've got two types of porters: brown and robust. Robust porters are closer in kinship to stouts than their brown porter brothers. They're very dark to the point of being opaque and hoppier than brown porters. Brown porters, while still dark, are more inclined to reveal some light through their bodies. The hops are downplayed. Brown porters are also lighter in body than their robust brethren. The alcohol content in brown porter tends to run between 4 and 6 percent while robust porter range from 5 to 7 percent.

So for this entry, I've picked two beers that are the quintessential picks of their category. The first one is Atlantic Brewing Company's Coal Porter. It's a brown porter. On the pour you'll get a good, stable head with a dark body. There's no shame in this "only" being a brown porter. While not black as coal, it takes a strong light to reveal the rich brown color. The chocolate and black malts being the culprits here. People who fear the dark, will still shudder at a pint glass of Coal Porter. Real beer drinkers will smile.

As the pint glass is raised to your lips, the chocolate and crystal malts will announce their presence to your nose. And your tongue will confirm this as chocolate and caramel flavors wash over it. Hops are mild. There's just enough of the Target and Williamette hops herein, though hop heads will undoubtedly demand more. This is a great beer that you can drink all winter. 5.8% ABV.

Representing the robust porters is Anchor Steam's Anchor Porter. On the pour a rich, stable head forms. The glass goes black as night. Only later on as the pint glass is drawn down does one see a rich ruby hue. Even the aforementioned head turns to a dark cream. Yes the chocolate and black malts are here. There was another aroma rising from the glass that I couldn't identify, though it was sweet. I checked the website and finally put a word to it: toffee. "Yes, that's it," I thought. My less than sophisticated culinary vocabulary was unable to label it without help, but toffee is definitely what it is.

No, I can't identify the hops and Anchor Steam is keeping their recipe a secret. Malts are easier to identify that hops, at least to this homebrewer. Anyway, the hops are definitely there. They make their claim on your tongue without overpowering it. So the whole blend of malt and hops, though clearly pronounced, are well balanced to give you a great robust porter. Yet another great beer that you can drink all winter long. 5.6% ABV.

My only complaint about these two beers would be the price. Each of these retails for $9/six pack here in CT. That's steep. I can brew a porter for half that price. In fact, I'm doing that right now. I still have to update my homebrew page with the particulars of my latest batch. But I'm not trying to say that the high price is all greed. While Atlantic Brewing Company (Bar Harbor, Maine) and Anchor Steam (San Francisco) will undoubtedly get their ingredients wholesale, there's shipping costs to add in, plus utilities, labor, taxes, and so on. Not to mention state regulated pricing, which I don't get since interstate trade is supposed to be regulated by the fed. Anyway, if you've ever thought of brewing your own beer, do it. After you're initial investment in the equipment, you only have to worry about your ingredients.

Ok, I'm rambling. Class dismissed. Go have a beer.

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DED

Art Buchwald

So long, Art. And thanks for the laughs.

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DED

Rail Use To Rise?

Energy conservationists and environmentalists have supported the increased use of public transportation for decades. Judging by the number of cars and trucks on the road, I don't think that they've had much luck. While a fair number of America's cities have solid mass transit systems, some are lacking.

When I lived in the Atlanta area during the early 90's, it's rail network (MARTA) consisted of one East-West line and one North-South line. If you didn't live and work near the lines, you were probably stuck dealing with the city's 8-lane interstate gridlock, unless you were lucky enough to find some back roads and shortcuts like I did. Shuttle buses? Nope. My employer didn't have them and since I had an aversion to buses there was no way I was going to try and figure that one out.

Why did I have an aversion to buses? 7 1/2 hour bus rides from Syracuse, where I went to college, and home. And that was the direct route. Since the trip only takes 4 1/2 hours by car, I dreaded the longer trip. 4 1/2 hours in a car, even an econobox, was better than dealing with 7 1/2 hours on a bus.

Fortunately, in my sophmore year, I discovered that I could take the train from Syracuse to Poughkeepsie, NY. I always had a friend willing to pick me up there (I paid for gas) for the rest of the journey home. That route would take 5 hours (train + car). Riding the train, which was cheaper at the time believe it or not, was much more enjoyable. I always had plenty of room and the scenery was great. Riding along the Huson River in Winter with the river full of ice and the landscape covered in snow was beautiful.

So, from all this you can infer that I'm "pro train." On those rare occasions when I've had to work in Manhattan, or been fortunate to be there just for fun, I've made it a point to take the train. I'm lucky in that I can take two different rail routes: Brewster or Danbury. I usually opt for Brewster although I have to drive 20 minutes to get there and the Danbury line stop is in my town. Why drive to the further one? Schedule flexibility. There are twice to thrice the number of trains on the Brewster line as the Danbury line. I don't know why that is.

You may have heard that Connecticut has a transportation problem: too many cars and trucks on the roads and little room to expand the roads. Even where there's room to widen a road, locals fight it. They'd rather see gridlock on a two lane road then a wider road. And when proposals to build bypasses around town centers are suggested, local businesses whine that they'll lose customers. Fortunately, after decades of bumper-to-bumper traffic, expansions to key portions of Route 7 (the artery that connects Norwalk to Danbury and New Milford) are being widened.

Overlooked in all this has been the rail line that roughly parallels Route 7. While the rails actually run all the way to Vermont, only freight trains run the whole line, and even they aren't utilizing the track as much as they could. I think they run once or twice a week, though I'm not certain of that frequency. The commuter trains end at Danbury, ignoring the sizable population of New Milford which is stuck dealing with Route 7 every day.

Finally, the idea of opening up the rail line to New Milford to passengers and increasing the number of freight trains in Connecticut is being taken seriously. Considering the number of traffic studies that have been done over the decades, you have to wonder why this option hasn't been pursued before. Maybe they were waiting for the flying cars.

Meanwhile in China, the government's choke hold on Tibet may finally be nearing completion. It was Mao Zedong's dream to build a rail line into Lhasa, the capital of Tibet. A rail line would enable him to send troops and supplies with relative ease to crush Tibetan resistance. However, the mountainous terrain presented too many technological hurdles to overcome, until now.

Last summer, the rail line connecting Golmud (elev. 9,220 ft) to Lhasa (elevation 11,975 ft) was completed. Chinese engineers, with the help of Nortel, GE, and Bombardier, pulled off a major accomplishment. Worried that the weight of the trains would lead to melting of the permafrost, the engineers employed several techniques (both low and high tech) to keep the ground cool. The trains themselves have to literarlly be air tight to prevent pressure loss at the high altitudes. Even so, each seat comes with oxygen diffusers for those travelers not quite acclimated to the altitude. No offense Denver, but you've got nothing on these guys.

But with Mao decades dead and the Chinese government moving away from communism and towards fascist capitalists, why continue with Mao's dream? The government still firmly believes in One China, and Tibet is part of that vision. Instead of sending soldiers, the new invaders will be workers, economic aid, and tourists. The "benefits" of modern life will be delivered to Tibet to "rescue" it from isolation and its "backwater" status. Lhasa could be the next Shanghai or Guangzhou.

The Dalai Lama's last hope will be that global warming will overwhelm the permafrost and send the rail line into chaos before Tibet's culture gets wiped out by the strategists in Beijing.

So whether it's swallowing up an ancient culture for the sake of nationalism or helping to alleviate the congested roads and highways of the megalopolis, it certainly looks to me like rail use is on the rise.

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For those of you who stuck with this entry: Enjoy. It has nothing whatsoever to do with what I wrote about. I just thought it was cool and decided to share. Thanks to Bob for sending it my way.

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DED

Freakin' Chain Letter Memes

I'm gonna be a good sport and perpetuate the blog meme that Mike tagged me with. He got tagged by George. And so on and so on. These are less annoying than chain emails because they don't promise stupendous things if you perpetuate the chain letter and terrible things if you break the chain. They're just there. So here goes....

1. Name a book that you want to share so much that you keep giving away copies: It's rare that I loan out a book. It's not that I won't, I just wait for people to look through my book shelf and ask, "May I borrow this?" I don't force books on people and I don't usually talk about what I read with my friends. Occasionally, Matt and I will talk about a book we've read, but it's rare. I don't know why. My book reviews here and on Amazon are my way of talking about the books I read. If I started going round telling people, "You've got to read this book," they'd think I snapped.

Now that I've got that out of the way, the book I'd recommend that people read would be Cosmos by Carl Sagan. That book (not to mention the PBS TV show) changed the way that I look at everything.

2. Name a piece of music that changed the way you listen to music: Without a doubt, Dark Side of the Moon by Pink Floyd. My father used to play that album (among others) every summer weekend we camped out in our pop up trailer on Fire Island with friends and their campers. It is the standard by which all music I listen to is compared. Although my taste in music has changed over the years, this album remains my all time favorite.

3. Name a film you can watch again and again without fatigue. That's tough. There are alot of films which could qualify. Monty Python's Quest For The Holy Grail comes to mind. The Matrix is a recent up and comer as is The Lord of the Rings trilogy (extended edition). I could even say Blade Runner. The original Star Wars trilogy would definitely qualify. I can't pick one.

4. Name a performer for whom you suspend of all disbelief. Patrick Stewart and Sean Connery. Terrific actors. I had the priviledge of seeing Patric Stewart perform the one man show of Dickens' "Christmas Carol" on Broadway. He gave an absolutely mesmerizing performance.

5. Name a work of art you'd like to live with. I'd be happy with anything by Louis Tiffany, but I'd prefer one of his landscape windows like "Landscape With Hollyhocks", "Waterfall", "Field of Lilies", "The Tree of Life." His lamps are excellent too. Hieronymous Bosch's "The Garden of Earthly Delights" would be nice for my office. I already live with a couple Dali prints: "Dream Caused by the Flight of a Bee Around a Pomegranate A Second Before Awakening" and "Penultimate Station". "The Metamorphosis of Narcissus" and "Swans Reflecting Elephants" would be nice to have too. "Persistence of Memory" is still great but everyone expects that.

6. Name a work of fiction which has penetrated your real life. Well, there was "Earthrise" by William Dietz which was so bad that I said, "I can write better than this guy!" and wrote my first novel. Of course I'm still trying to find an agent who'll even read a sample chapter but whatever. Then I read "Pattern Recognition" by William Gibson and realized that I have so far to go. But if you're looking for a more philosophical answer, Ray Bradbury's "Martian Chronicles", which I read when I was ten or so, made me realize that not all of mankind's possible futures are bright.

7. Name a punch line that always makes you laugh. Just about anything from Monty Python and the Quest for the Holy Grail.

King Arthur: [after Arthur's cut off both of the Black Knight's arms] Look, you stupid Bastard. You've got no arms left.
Black Knight: Yes I have.
King Arthur: *Look*!
Black Knight: It's just a flesh wound. [the Black Knight continues to threaten Arthur despite getting both his arms and one of his legs cut off]
Black Knight: Right, I'll do you for that!
King Arthur: You'll what?
Black Knight: Come here!
King Arthur: What are you gonna do, bleed on me?

Sir Bedevere: What makes you think she's a witch?
Peasant: Well, she turned me into a newt!
Sir Bedevere: A newt?
Peasant: [meekly after a long pause] ... I got better.

Galahad at the Castle Anthrax:
Dingo: You must spank her well, and after you are done with her, you may deal with her as you like... and then... spank me.
All: And me. And me too. And me.
Dingo: Yes. Yes, you must give us all a good spanking.
Dingo: And after the spanking, the oral sex.
Galahad: Well, I could stay a bit longer...

"Let's not bicker and argue about who killed who...."

Bring Out Yer Dead!

Ni!!!

Man, that movie is just chock full of quotes. Thankfully, IMDb has alot of them up there so all I have to do is copy and paste.

Ok, so here's the part where I tag others to carry on the meme. I pick Mort, Ed from Westchester (because the Islanders beat the Rangers again), and Jim Nubel. Jim, you can leave your picks here in the Comments section. Of course all of you can ignore me. I won't mind. However, you'll have to answer to Mike and George.

Ni!!!

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DED

Waiting For Winter

Here in Connecticut, we just had our warmest December on record. Not only that, we didn't have any snow. Today, it's raining and the temperature is 56°. Tomorrow, we're headed into the 60's. The average high for this time of year is 36°. The jet stream has been stuck in place for several weeks now. So while we're getting Spring-like temperatures, the Rockies are getting dumped on with snow.

I realize that most people prefer the warm weather, but I don't. I like winter. I don't ski, but I do sled. But it isn't about that. I just like the cold. I like looking out my window and seeing a foot of snow. I like the adversity of Man vs. the Elements that comes to play. Maybe I just like the change of seasons. It seems like we've been in a holding pattern for late Fall since... late Fall. A seasonal Limbo.

There are, of course, pros and cons to all of this nice weather. My electric bill for November 6th through December 11th was better than expected. We averaged 16 less kWh per day than the same time period the previous year. The average temperature, according to CL&P was 7° warmer this year though. I should expect a similar bill next week or so. But at 15.278 cents/kWh, the highest rate in the continental US and twice the national average, I cringe whenever I get the bill. Electric heat. Electric water heater. You get the idea. And the rates are going up even more. Not only can I expect another 7.7% increase (though total bill or just power generation, I don't know), but FERC is hitting us (the whole country, I think) with another surcharge. The attorney generals from Massachusettes and Connecticut are fighting it as it will cost us $500 million and $200 million per year, respectively. If the money were being used for something useful, like improving energy efficiency or promoting alternative energy, I could stomach it. But CT AG Blumenthal says that the money will go to existing power generators without requiring them to build new plants or produce more electricity.

Another good thing is that I'm not burning nearly as much wood as I normally would by now. At this current rate, I'm certain that I'll have enough to get through the winter.

The lower electric bills make it easier to save up money for energy saving home improvements and brings the day when I can generate my own power that much closer. I figure that solar panels and wind turbines will be that much more affordable, more efficient, and easier to install when that day comes. For example, Southwest Windpower is now selling a wind turbine for only $10,000. It has an estimated energy production of 400 kWh per month assuming an average wind speed of 12 mph. Even with CT's electric rates, you'd be looking at over a decade for a ROI. But it would definitely offer some peace of mind that your carbon footprint was tremendously decreased, not to mention that no "geopolitical entanglements" were required either.

So what are some of the cons to this warm spell? Drought and Parasites. The cold weather kills off the harmful insects (gypsy moths and pine beetles) and parasites that attack people, animals, and plants, forcing them to re-start their populations over from scratch each year. Ticks, fleas, and adelgids are just a few of the many parasites susceptible to cold.

When I lived in Florida during the early 80's, the fleas there were brutal. If you had a pet that went outdoors, it was guaranteed to get fleas. None of the flea collars on the market worked at all. Flea baths would help for a while. Once the fleas got in your house, they went after people. Even if you caught them, and managed to crush its tough exoskeleton, there were thousands more elsewhere. From time to time, people would have to have exterminators bomb their homes. I remember having to leave the house for a couple hours while the pesticide did its job. One friend even volunteered for an experimental pesticide, which required her house to be registered with the state's EPA branch.

Another southern pest is the fire ant. Anyone who's accidentally walked onto a nest of fire ants can tell you how painful their bites are. Having your feet and legs covered with a swarm of warriors is excruciating. On the occasion when I'd get attacked, I'd run and dive into our pool with all my clothes on to rid myself of them and numb the pain. And they're as brutal to other animals as they are to people.

I'm not suggesting that fire ants and aggressive fleas are going to be in the Northeast this summer because of our mild winter. However, these guys will certainly be able to increase their range thanks to the warm weather that the entire eastern seaboard has enjoyed this year. But native pests like the adelgid are already here. I shudder to think what would happen if they didn't die off each year.

And what of the hibernators? If it's too warm to hibernate, and all the plants are asleep, what are these guys going to eat? My cats are still chasing tree squirrels this late into the season when both should be keeping warm, the former nestled in some burrow (not hibernating though) with its kin while the latter by a warm fire.

As for the increased potential for drought, you first have to understand what the snow pack does. A melting snow pack slowly releases its water into Spring, keeping the ground moist for plants for an extended period of time. Typically, it's long enough, when coupled with Spring rains, for the trees to unfurl their leaves and thus shade the ground, and their roots, from the hot sun. It's even more important on farms where there are no trees to provide shade. A snow drought doesn't guarantee problems, but it puts stress on the system. You couple that with a thriving parasite population and then you've really got trouble.

Now, one might say that it's ok, the system will bounce back. Yes, a year here or there of climatic stress and the ecosystem bounces back. Plant and animal life adapts or dies off, and something else moves in to inhabit its niche. Dutch elm disease and Chestnut blight have wreaked irrevocable damage. There's a street in town named Chestnut Ridge but good luck finding one. There's a chestnut tree in my yard that's still trying to survive. It typically shoots up a trunk an inch or so in diameter until it reaches 6 or 7 feet and then dies, only to repeat the process again.

Over time, oaks, maple, ash, beech and birch have filled in the gaps left by the Chestnut tree holocaust (I don't know how else to describe it. Megadeath perhaps? They're not extinct but may as well be.) But what if too many species of trees die off before others can fill in the gaps? 50 foot trees don't sprout up overnight.

It's one thing to deal with one opportunistic parasite when the seasons are normal or one year of drought (snow or rain), but what happens when both converge as a regular occurrence? What a terribly bleak landscape that would be.

I'll leave you with an example from my own experience. Another natural facet to my life in Florida was the abundance of Norfolk Island Pines. I lived on the east coast, where the sandy soil was a perfect home for them. They defined the landscape, towering above everything. They were at least twice as tall as the town water tower and as tall as the condos on the shoreline. They defined neighborhoods and each cluster of trees had a unique shape to them. They were the landmarks I navigated by. When the ocean breeze buffeted them, it made the most beautiful sound. And when you drove over the intercoastal bridge from the mainland, it was like looking at a mountain range.

On one visit to my parents in the mid-90's, I was dismayed to find that ALL of the giant trees were dead from a severe cold snap years before (They're native to the South Pacific, not Florida. They weren't able to deal with the extreme cold, though the palm trees did ok). The place felt alien without them. The skyline was all wrong. I had difficulty navigating my way around. I felt lost without them. I would be surprised when I found myself in places. "Oh, we're here already?" or "I was supposed to turn there." No matter how many times I went back to visit, it never felt like the place I used to call home.

The sense of loss, for me, was like the death of an old friend from your childhood. Having actually experienced that emotion before, I don't make that comparison lightly. And I'd rather not have to relive those feelings, here and now.

So let's have a snowy Winter already, ok?

\_/
DED

UPDATE (Sunday 1/7): Just read an article in today's paper about how the mild winter hasn't killed off the milfoil infestation in Candlewood Lake. Some background: Candlewood Lake is CT's largest lake. It's also man made. It's infested with watermilfoil, an invasive weed which chokes the waterways. It's a scourge to boaters. Anyway, each winter when the lake is drained to generate electricity, the milfoil and eelgrass are exposed to the bitter cold air and die off. They bounce back over the summer and the process is repeated. Not this year. Whether or not this is a good thing (boaters unable to use the lake) is subject to debate. Economically it's bad. Environmentally it's good (afaik).

Panic In The Boardroom

Panic at the Disco? No, seriously. Panic at the Disco is what you guys at NBC came up with for your Midnight act on New Year's Eve? Who's sleeping with the band over there? I learned through their website that they've been on Carson Daly and Conan in '06 so someone over there must love them. Oh and let Carson Daly know that we "appreciate" him too. Not!

What bugs me the most is that I'd never heard of Panic at the Disco before they played New Year's Eve. I try to stay somewhat current even though I'm sandwiched in classic rock radio land. I mean, I even know the platinum selling rappers and I don't listen to hip hop. These guys are platinum sellers? How? They seemed like next gen 80's new wave. And was that a lyric about divorce? Oooooh now that's a happy topic to sing about on what's supposed to be the biggest party night of the year.

C'mon man! New Year's is supposed to be all about fun! I expect big name headliners, or at least well known ones. I never expect to like them, but I do expect to know them. This is the best you can do? ABC's got Christine Aguilera, which makes sense since she's a big pop princess. Even Fox has some pop chick I've heard of. CBS? Shit, they didn't even try! They're running the news and CSI reruns. Wait, something's going on here!

In my youth, the networks used to pull out all the stops for New Year's Eve spectaculars. You'd see big name pop stars singing their latest hits all night. You'd see some global highlights, but, starting with New York, you'd see the New Year rung in across the country. Apparently, that's not the case anymore. I guess that people are tuning them out making a big investment in celebration coverage a matter of diminishing returns. I mean, CBS didn't do anything! And the other networks were done by 1AM EST. I'm guessing that local affiliates handled their own countdowns. 24 hour cable news channels kept the old tradition going. CNN and Fox News had the other time zones (I stayed up for Chicago/New Orleans). MSNBC ran more prison documentaries.

Fox News showed Times Square either just before or just after 1AM EST and it was EMPTY. Everyone was gone? Does that happen every year? I thought people stayed up and partied all night. It was relatively warm (40's as opposed to 20's). Did everyone go inside the bars? If so, why didn't I see anyone out there? Maybe CBS had the right idea.

So I have to think that maybe The Long Tail is bigger than I thought. For those of you unfamiliar with that term, a short, imprecise definition is that more money can be made selling niche products than going for blockbusters. Having a thousand club bands on your roster is better than having one Mariah Carey. While I was convinced a year or two ago when I'd first heard about it, I didn't expect to see it have such a pronounced effect: i.e. no coverage on CBS, an "unknown" niche band playing on a major network.

If you read this excerpt, you'll see that there's been a line of diminishing returns on blockbuster movies, TV shows, radio station listeners, albums, books, etc. thanks to the Internet. We have access to so much more than we ever did. Sites like Google, Amazon, MySpace, coupled with iPods, Napster or any of its successors, make it possible for niche products (books, music, movies etc.) to find a home. Referral engines make suggestions: "If you like A, then you might like B, C, D, or E" increasing the sales potential of items that can't find their way onto store shelves. One no longer needs to have a major movie studio, music label, or book publisher to crack into retail. While the burden of marketing falls onto these small DIY stalwarts, they have access to the tools to make it happen. With perseverance, and maybe a little luck, it's possible for nobodies to become somebodies. Those somebodies might not become household names, but they might get a gig on New Year's Eve.

\_/
DED