Cartoon of the day

Special mention

Cartoon of the day

Special mention

 

Falling back

Working-class Americans are not the only ones who have fallen back over the course of the past few decades. So has Autumn.

According to Climate Central [ht: db],

Over the past 25 years, the onset of autumn has shifted throughout the lower 48 states, with leaves now staying on trees about 10 days longer than they did in the early 1980s.

Using satellite-based measurements of the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), which gauges leaf cover over wide areas, researchers at the Seoul National University in South Korea found that the end of the growing season occurred progressively later over the course of their 26-year study. By noting the time of year changes in color occurred most rapidly, the researchers could track when fall started between 1982 and 2008. . .

there is significant variation from year to year, and from region to region. This regional variation is driven by a number of factors: altitude, rainfall and soil conditions are just a few things that play a role. However, by looking at a given region as a whole, and comparing the 5-year average between the start and the end of the study, our analysis found that fall in the continental U.S. now arrives 10.5 days later on average — a shift of about a week and a half.

Something there about climate change, me thinks. . .

Fetishism of digital gadgetry

With the arrival of the iPhone 5, Richard Maxwell and Toby Miller find themselves questioning the fetishism of digital gadgetry:

The enchantment with everything Apple makes it hard to acknowledge the firm’s material connection to labor exploitation and ecological decline. Consider those advertising campaigns that feature beautiful post-racial silhouettes funkifying iPads and iPods for our delectation as we sit idling in cars or look up from subway seats. The company certainly knows how to promote its style to a certain model of customer, notably elite cybertarians and techno-bohemians working in the culture industries. . .

A critical view of this contrived newness might unsettle the prevailing idolatry of Macsters like us. We can shake off the magic if we treat innovation skeptically, questioning the planned obsolescence that confuses an abundance of i-Things with wellbeing and creativity. We would gain something in return: a connection to the present where we can comprehend the deplorable working conditions that bring these high-tech wonders into the world and the ecological impact of such cool stuff.

This is the kind of society we live in, here and now. The question, as always: Is it the kind of society we want?

Uh-oh!

Remembering Irene

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One year ago, Tropical Storm Irene devastated large parts of the “brave little state of Vermont.” Here are three paintings by Chester artist James Jahrsdoerfer.

Cartoon of the day

Special mention

Cartoon of the day

 

Special mention

Map of the day

This map, drawn from microwave satellite data, shows the Arctic sea ice on 26 August 2012, at its smallest extent ever recorded. The line on the image shows the average minimum extent from 1979 to 2010.

Scientists at the University of Colorado at Boulder said that data recorded on Sunday broke the 2007 record for the lowest extent of sea ice in the Arctic Ocean, and that the melt could become even more significant with several weeks of summer left to go.

 

Announcement of a war

 

[ht: als]

The construction of the Belo Monte hydroelectric dam is the most expensive—and one of the most controversial—construction projects in Brazilian history.

Here’s a link to the original version in Portuguese.

On 14 August, work on the dam was halted by order of the Brazilian Federal Court, in a decision by federal judge Souza Prudente, who argued that the indigenous peoples had not been consulted.

Update

It’s just been reported that the Brazilian Supreme Court president, Carlos Ayres Britto, has overturned the order by the lower court, thus allowing construction on the dam to proceed.