Also found at WFMU’s Blog, “a battle between a pride of lions, a herd of buffalo, and 2 crocodiles at a watering hole in South Africa’s Kruger National Park.” You gotta watch it all; you’ve never seen nuthin like it. Note: the start may disturb those who have probs w/ how lions shop for meat:
This week’s HV cast is a trip to Easter Island to gather recordings of local musicians and theories on who made and moved the “moai,” the ilse’s famous stone heads. A mystery of aliens, archeologists; and arboreal emptiness: What happened to all the trees? A story by Jack Chance, “Big Stone Heads” (6:09 mp3):
NPR’s Robert Krulwich teams with flashmaster Odd Todd for a “science-y” series of cartoons: NPR : When Carbon Falls in Love, the World Heats Up.
This week’s HV cast is a portrait of the non-fiction writer Charles Bowden, told by the people he’s written about and the editors he’s worked with. Bowden lives in Tucson, Arizona, and has written extensively on the cultural and physical environment of the Southwest. His style is both harsh and beautiful, and somewhat painful to read, as he takes the position that we are all to blame, or perhaps that there is no one is to blame, for the violent and destructive acts committed against nature and society. He writes about child molesters, drug traffickers, savings and loan executives, real estate developers, and crooked politicians in a way that implicates all of us. And so his work has been largely ignored. These interviews, hopefully, will help end his anonymity. A story by Scott Carrier, “The Thing Just Beyond Our Reach” (22:41 mp3):
This week’s HV cast for a hot Summer’s day— It is 120°. The birds and animals, and even insects hide. We hear the the words, thoughts and sounds of desert residents: writer Charles Bowden, the Tohono O’odham poet Ofelia Zepeda, and ambient composer Steve Roach, whose composition “Slow Heat” scores the piece. A story by Jeff Rice, “Heat- extended mix” (7:30 mp3):
Latest High Country News has a profile on a pocatello graphic designer who also makes bikes to give away — when he’s not teaching folks how to fix their own bikes… Seems to be currying a sort of low-key activist stance on fighting urban sprawl.
here’s the web teaser.
Scott’s piece on “Sun Tunnels” (9:21) sculpture in the Utah desert runs this solstice week on The Nature Conservancy’s Nature Stories podcast:
This week’s HV cast: The eerily beautiful music of moth wings. A tale of bat-detectors, beehive destruction and the intersection of insect and synthesizer. A story by Jeff Rice, “Moth Music” (mp3 3:02):
From the Witchita Eagle 20 May 2004
(Snopes sez True):
Bill Driver was standing on the deck of his house near 119th Street West and Central when he saw an eight-inch ball floating in Sandalwood Lake.
Noticing the ball wasn’t floating normally, Driver wandered to his dock for a closer look. A catfish had its mouth stuck around the ball.
Driver hollered for his wife, Pam, to get a camera while he unrigged the sail from his nine-foot boat, wading into the lake and corralling the fish toward shore with the sail as a seine.
Several times, the flathead tried to dive, only to have the ball buoy it back to the surface.
The fish appeared to be exhausted and offered little resistance once in the shallows.
Things may have gone easier had the fish the strength to struggle.
“I just couldn’t pull that ball out of its mouth,” Driver said. “I was lifting up out of the water as best I could by the ball. I finally sent my wife to the house to get a knife.”
Driver carefully deflated the ball. Estimated at 50 pounds, the fish swam toward the deepest part of the lake.
Matt Payne’s grandpa 1) likes to catch smelt and 2) has a helluva voice: Nelson Hersey: Master Fisherman.
(Matt’s a sampled musical vers is “Getchyer Long Johns On.”)
Maybe his science ain’t quite kosher, but you gotta admire the conviction of The Guy From Boston, “Global Warming”:
The Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum has an exhibition and website showcasing design done for people who don’t have money, power outlets or even running water. As a designer, I have often worked on projects aimed at the 10% that do have all those things and more (although, ironically, some of those projects were items such as travel brochures for expeditions to places like Mongolia where you can get away from all those trappings of wealth whenever you get sick of them). While one often pays at least some attention on usability and impairment issues, the reality is that most of the focus is on creating something cool, unique and that gets away – as much as possible – with using the latest and greatest.
I have found, however, that accomodating design (i.e. the equivalent of curb-cuts in sidewalks) makes it easier for all audiences to use a product or a site. Many of the items you’ll see on this site look like they’d be useful even in a first-world environment. It makes you think about how many design resources are wasted because they’re aimed at a narrow, mostly wealthy audience. “But hey, the beautiful finish on that Apple flat-panel display really makes it run better.”
Third Coast Festival features “Ocean Hour,” a radio classic from 1979, back when NPR attempted such sonic splendor. It’s produced by HV’s Larry Massett (who also composed & performed the music ) and Keith Talbot– 3rdCoast interviews Keith “Behind the Scenes.”
I-10 west outta New Orleans goes right thru the Atchafalaya swamp. Right thru it, several times; the highway’s held up on posts for miles. Was listening to a country station playing the trad stuff: Merle Haggard, Dolly Parton, and this one from George Strait… but before I post the song, I gotta give it setting.
Ok, think driving 85mph toward a skyfull of Louisiana sunset; air full of mositure and swamp smells, cranes flying overhead, passing places named Lake Ponchartrain, Whiskey Bay, and Bayou Teche; the windows rolled all the way down, but the radio turned up plenty loud to hear it clear over the wind and engine noise. Now, outta the speakers pours George Strait “Amarillo by Morning”:
Even the military is starting to see the light or feel the warmth, as the case may be. I thought the most interesting point (made in the audio portion) of the story was retired Gen. Anthony Zinni’s comment that the real resource war isn’t going to be about hydrocarbons. It will be about hydrology or, in other words, water scarcity. He noted that many of the same places in the world that are rich in oil are poor in water.
Saw a Segway roll by this morn. I live outta town on a rural dirt road. We’ve seen moose, bear, elk, and deer out our door — not everyday, but certainly not unexpected. A Segway, tho, that was a surprise.
Check the platform and wheel frame. They’ve beefed up these things for off-asphalt trails since I last looked. He was movin’ over dirt at a good clip, about 15mph. Wonder if they go on snow.
Now, here’s what we country folk are more used to seeing. These furry folk were in my backyard. On the right, that’s Elk butt you’re looking at — or as it’s called here in Montana: Dinner.
The work of field-recordist extraordinaire Chris Watson (fmr Cabaret Voltaire) is on National Geographic Channel’s Galápagos web. (Click “Launch Site”; skip the opening video, use the lower-right audio controls.)
(Found at lissenup.)
WASHINGTON, April 2 — In one of its most important environmental decisions in years, the Supreme Court ruled today that the Environmental Protection Agency has the authority to regulate heat-trapping gases in automobile emissions.
The court further ruled that the agency cannot sidestep its authority to regulate the greenhouse gases that contribute to global climate change unless it can provide a scientific basis for its refusal.
Gotta be a late April Fool’s joke with this court or are even the Supremes giving Bush da finga now?
As mentioned before I’m hooked on C-Span. Mainly for it’s raw unedited info, and insight into how-.gov-works. But also for it’s moments of pure real-life theatre, like during last weeks’ Senate Hearings on Global Warming, in this interaction b/w witness Fmr VP Gore and Senators Inhofe and Boxer:
What was more enlightening, tho, was the educated exchanges Gore had w/ senators on both sides of the aisle. Sure the occasional pol proposed things like sunspots as cause for globe.warm (really, a Senator said that: sunspots). But most — GOP and Dem — were informed, concerned and open to learning more. Here’s Sen Clinton and the fmr Veep:
Highly recommended you stream this thing: all 2+ hours of the C-Span (RealMedia) coverage. As a contrast, read CJR Daily‘s eval of network sound-bitten reports on Gore’s testimony to both houses.
Check this nice flash-background to a video player: TERRA: The Nature of Our World. I love the outdoor drive-in amongst wildlife setting. The site is a MT State Univ student site, and it’s up for a SXSW award (MSU press release).
