Beardy Guy Musings

Just a quick note before bed. While I have not seen the Scarlet Tanagers in a week I have seen a beautiful Summer Tanager… twice in fact. We had a nice heavy rain on Monday and another tonight. All the new plants are very happy.

Image Source

The continued march towards Peak Oil:

“OPEC is at its highest production in history. I am concerned about that. If we reach the full capacity now, we will tighten in the fourth quarter. The spare capacity will be smaller and smaller, reaching a plateau when there is no more oil."
- Abdullah Hamad al-Attiyah,
Oil Minister, Qatar

Discussion at PeakOil.com

Found via Lowem

Technorati Tags: Natural Resources, Oil, Peak Energy, Peak Oil

Download QuickTime presentation I put this together last year as an entry into Apple’s Keynote contest and meant to post it for download long ago. The original format is Keynote and includes several large Quicktime movies that have been removed for the download to reduce file size. I replaced the movies with a still image taken from the movie to retain the original flavor. Also, please note this is encoded in using Apple’s new H.264 codec which requires QuickTime 7 a free download from Apple. Also, because it is intended as a presentation of slides rather than a movie you may need to pause playback to read the text. Click the link to the left to see the movie in a page or you can control click/right click to save it to your hard drive. Oh, and one last note: I just noticed that Apple has not yet released Quicktime 7 for Windows. Dammit. Well, okay, fine… dammit. Heh. Well, I’ll leave this up for now with apologies to folks on Windows. I’ll try to convert it to another codec for folks using Quicktime 6 and get that posted in the next day or two.

Technorati tags: Gardening, Native Wildflowers, Keynote, H.264

Technorati Tags: Gardening, H.264, Keynote, Native Gardening, Native Landscaping, Native Wildflowers

Lots of gardening happening! Added nearly 90 Missouri natives. More photos soon.


Technorati tags: Gardening, Native Wildflowers

Technorati Tags: Gardening, Native Wildflowers

Best part of my day today: eating dinner while watching a Scarlet Tanager take a bath in our little pond. Both the male and female came in for a bath.

Image Source.

Technorati Tags: Birding, Birds, Scarlet Tanager

A few weeks ago I was contacted by Rowan of Radical Noesis - Thinking outside the box with an invitation to participate in a new blog. Looks like the project is off to a great start. From the about page:

We here at Radical Noesis feel that the earth is facing two bottom-line challenges - the end of oil as an accessible resource, and global warming. Either of these events are catastrophic to the planet. Taken together, they could end life as we know it - physically and environmentally - for all living things. While the prospect is catastrophic, the possibilities are equally immense. We have before us two interlinked disasters that effect everyone and every nation on the planet. We can work together, or we can die alone. We believe we can work together. Radical Noesis is focused on these two critical issues and their ramifications. It aims to provide information and analysis, as well as vision and action. We are working collaboratively in this endeavor, We definitely need to “think outside the box” and mobilize outside the box as well. That is our task. We are committed to doing our part to save the world. We hope that Radical Noesis will be a useful tool to that end.

Technorati tags: Oil, Global Warming, Environment

Technorati Tags: environment, Global Warming, Oil

So, what kind of self respecting Mac geek fails to post a few words on Tiger? It’s not at all surprising that such mini reviews are all over the internet so I’m sure one more will make little difference… but I cannot resist.

I’ve now installed it or supervised its installation on five Macs ranging from a 900mhz G3 iBook, 3 G4s, and a G5 iMac. I’ve only run into one problem which involved iPhoto which I think may have been related to one of the 2 plugins I had installed: Photon (for exporting to TypePad) or FlickrExport. I’m not certain about this but the only solution seemed to be a reinstall of iPhoto. Not a big problem and solved easily. I have not reinstalled the plugins to verify if any problems exist with them in relation to iPhoto and Tiger.

Most of the installs were less than 45 minutes. The spotlight indexing that takes place upon reboot hogs the processor for a bit but on all of these machines indexing was typically finished within 20 minutes. Oh, and I should note that I used the “Archive and Install” which allows for saving all the user settings which means that upon logging back in everything worked with no need to adjust anything. Smooth as buttah.

After two days of use I’ve got this to say: I like.

There are all sorts of little things such as the addition of Energy Saver presets to the battery menu for portables. Saves you another trip to System Preferences if you want to make a quick change to the settings.

Dashboard is far better than Konfabulator and much more useful than I thought. I’ve got it set to activate when i move my mouse to the bottom right corner which takes less than a second. From there I can access a fantastical variety of useful tools with more being created every day. Aside from Apple’s included phonebook my two favorites thus far are WikityWidget and Wikipedia Widget.

The new Safari is incredibly speedy. I love NetNewsWire but I will also use Safari’s RSS feeds. I put the 83 feeds included by Apple into my bookmarks bar and at last count I think I saw 2,000+ unread stories waiting for me. It goes without saying that I won’t read all those but I can leave that open in a tab and check particular areas of interest every so often using the built in keyword filter which works splendidly.

The updated Mail program is excellent. It imported all of my email perfectly. The new smart folders that were previously only available in iTunes and iPhoto are now available in Mail thanks to the systemwide integration of Spotlight. Not only do we now have smart folders but searching through the content of thousands of emails is nearly instantaneous. While many seem to hate the new interface of Mail I’m happy with it.

Quicktime is a mixed bag. The quality of the new codec is truly amazing. I downloaded the new Batman and Fantastic 4 trailers from Apple’s site and the large versions are DVD quality. The downside is that playback on a G4 1 ghz was a little choppy. The image was perfect but the playback was not as smooth as would have liked. I’ll have to use this a bit more to get a better idea of what I think.

Automator, the easy to use workflow builder, is going to be very cool. I’ve only just begun to play with it but in just a few seconds I created a single step workflow to add “Spotlight comments” to any file. I can access this via the contextual menu in the Finder and it took me 42 seconds to create. This tool will only get better as I learn more about how it works and as others share the workflows they have created over the interweb.

The new Dictionary and Thesaurus is very cool. I can access this via a contextual menu anyplace on my screen where there is text. Tip: open up the Dictionary application and open its preferences. On the bottom change the “Contextual Menu” from the default to “Open Dictionary panel”. By doing this you can get the definitions you want via a smooth little pop-up rather than opening the Dictionary application. Another tip: in addition to the contextual menu you can access this with a key combination. Position your cursor over any of these words then press Control+Command+d and you should see the magical little popup! Keep pressing Control+Command and release the d key and it will stay active. Now, keeping Control+Command pressed move your cursor around to different words in the active window!

I’ll end with a few observations of Spotlight. The thing to remember is that this is now a systemwide change not just a little icon to be accessed via the menu or a search field in a Finder window. Spotlight is the groundwork for all sorts of cool future applications. That said, I was not as impressed as I thought I would be with the menu and Finder implementations of Spotlight. It works as intended but it just feels a bit… limited. Let me explain why: QuickSilver.

Now, I’ve been using QuickSilver for nearly a year (previously I used LaunchBar) and so I’m comparing Spotlight to QuickSilver. Spotlight is all about finding information in files and opening them in the appropriate application. QuickSilver is about finding information and manipulating or using it from within QuickSilver. For example… If I search in Spotlight for Greg the first result is my brother-in-law’s address book vCard. Good. That’s what I would hope. Down in that list are other related files, emails, and iCal events. Excellent. I can arrow down to them and open the appropriate object in its application in most cases. For some reason iCal events do not open though iCal itself does. Compare this to QuickSilver. When I enter Greg I get the same top hit, Greg’s vCard. I also get any file with Greg in the name. I do not get email or any document with Greg in the actual content so I’m looking at a smaller file list. That said, I can do far more with what QuickSilver does find. For example, with the vCard, I can open it in Address Book as with Spotlight but I can perform all sorts of other functions. With a few key maneuvers I can send an email to Greg, send an email with an attachment, open his web page, display his phone or address in large letters across the screen for easy viewing and much more.

What it comes down to is that I’ll use Spotlight for searching for files and QuickSilver for performing advanced actions and file manipulation. One day the functionality will meld together, for now I’ll use them both.

One disappointment, at least on my Mac, iPhoto and Spotlight integration. Spotlight does not seem to pick up my iPhoto keywords very well. Compare this to Quicksilver which does not pick these keywords up but does see the iPhoto Smart Albums associated with the keywords and lets me view the actual album photo thumbnails! Edit: To clarify, if I use the find field in a standard Finder window it becomes obvious that they are indexed and they do show up. I think that they must have been in the dropdown search but perhaps I missed them because the display via the dropdown is more limited.

Lastly (at least for the moment) I think users of 10.4 will soon be amazed by the underlying technologies that will be incorporated into new or updated applications. Core Image filters are at the top of that list as are Spotlight plugins. Keep a look out for many goodies.

Reviews:
The very best: John Siracusa’s review at Ars Technica He’s been reviewing OS X going back to the public beta days. His Tiger review is 21 web pages… several hours reading. 100+ pages if you download the pdf. This is not a casual review.

Another good one by John Gruber of Daring Fireball.

Downloadable Automator Workflows
Apple’s Workflows Downloads
Automator World
Automator Actions @ Macscripter

Downloadable Spotlight plugins
Apple’s Spotlight Downloads

Downloadable Dashboard Widgets.
Apple’s Widgets Downloads
Dashboard Widgets
Dashboard Exchange



Technorati tags: Tiger, Apple, Mac OS 10.4, OS X

Technorati Tags: Apple, Mac Os 10.4, OS X, Tiger

Wow. This is cool. The folks over at Podscope are filtering through podcasts and creating an easy to search index for submitted feeds. I did a search for “democracy” and sure enough several of my podcasts came up. Click the + next to each feed to expand the entry with embedded audio to play at the point where the searched keyword is available. Very cool.

Technorati tags: Podcasting

Technorati Tags: Podcast, Podcasting

David Pescovitz over at BoingBoing writes about the rediscovery of the Ivory-billed Woodpecker::

After more than sixty-years, a rare bird believed to have been extinct has been spotted in the Big Woods of Arkansas. A kayaker first reported seeing the ivory-billed woodpecker last year. Scientists have since spotted the bird several times and even caught it briefly on video. (Seen here is a John James Audobon illustration.) From a Cornell University news release:

While kayaking in the Cache River National Wildlife Refuge on Feb. 11, 2004, Gene Sparling of Hot Springs, Ark., saw an unusually large, red-crested woodpecker fly toward him and land on a nearby tree. He noticed several field marks suggesting the bird was an ivory-billed woodpecker.

A week later, after learning of the sighting, Tim Gallagher, editor of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s Living Bird magazine, and Bobby Harrison, associate professor at Oakwood College, Huntsville, Ala., interviewed Sparling. They were so convinced by his report that they traveled to Arkansas and then with Sparling to the bayou where he had seen the bird.

On Feb. 27, as Sparling paddled ahead, a large black-and-white woodpecker flew across the bayou less than 70 feet in front of Gallagher and Harrison, who simultaneously cried out: “Ivory-bill!” Minutes later, after the bird had disappeared into the forest, Gallagher and Harrison sat down to sketch independently what each had seen. Their field sketches, included in the Science article, show the characteristic patterns of white and black on the wings of the woodpecker.

“When we finished our notes,” Gallagher said, “Bobby sat down on a log, put his face in his hands and began to sob, saying, ‘I saw an ivory-bill. I saw an ivory-bill.'” Gallagher said he was too choked with emotion to speak. “Just to think this bird made it into the 21st century gives me chills. It’s like a funeral shroud has been pulled back, giving us a glimpse of a living bird, rising Lazarus-like from the grave,” he said.

Link to news release.
Amazing. I’ll never forget seeing the Ivory-billed woodpecker in a bird book for the first time and moments later, reading that it was extinct. It was a sad moment for me. I think that was the first time that the reality of extinction hit me in a very real way. Sometime last year I read that the bird was thought to have been sighted again. I had to read it several times to believe it. This is one of those too rare moments when we have good news about a species and the biodiversity of our planet.

Technorati Tags: Birds, Extinction, Natural, Ivory-billed Woodpecker

One of my favorite wild flowers… a native with really delicate foliage and a very interesting flower. Very good for attracting the first spring hummingbirds.

Technorati Tags: Native Gardening, Native Landscaping, Native Wildflowers, Natural, Columbine, Wild flowers

The Guardian has an excellent story on the early arrival of peak oil production: The end of oil is closer than you think:

Oil production could peak next year, reports John Vidal. Just kiss your lifestyle goodbye

The one thing that international bankers don’t want to hear is that the second Great Depression may be round the corner. But last week, a group of ultra-conservative Swiss financiers asked a retired English petroleum geologist living in Ireland to tell them about the beginning of the end of the oil age.

They called Colin Campbell, who helped to found the London-based Oil Depletion Analysis Centre because he is an industry man through and through, has no financial agenda and has spent most of a lifetime on the front line of oil exploration on three continents. He was chief geologist for Amoco, a vice-president of Fina, and has worked for BP, Texaco, Shell, ChevronTexaco and Exxon in a dozen different countries.

“Don’t worry about oil running out; it won’t for very many years,” the Oxford PhD told the bankers in a message that he will repeat to businessmen, academics and investment analysts at a conference in Edinburgh next week. “The issue is the long downward slope that opens on the other side of peak production. Oil and gas dominate our lives, and their decline will change the world in radical and unpredictable ways,” he says.

I say, let it crash! I so thoroughly despise this way of life that I welcome the coming disruption. I’ve come to the conclusion that the vast majority of my fellow citizens are ignorant, selfish twits and the sooner their way of life turns into the pit of hell the better. Enjoy your fucking SUV and house in suburbia, your trips to The Gap and Walmart… it will end soon enough. Idiots. The future is going to punch you in the face.

Whooo…. I’m not angry am I? Guess I need to get back to the flowers and fuzzy bunnies.

Technorati tags: Peak Oil, Environment, Natural Resources

Technorati Tags: environment, Natural Resources, Peak Oil

I’m housesitting for my brother this week so I’m just a half mile from my sister’s house. I went down yesterday and ended up staying for dinner and then a nice long conversation which started off on the topic of god/morality/family values. Essentially my brother-in-law was thinking out loud about the role of religion and church in the formation of kids' world view. This, in turn led to a discussion of religion as an evolution of hierarchy and a process of social control. I used it as an opportunity to recall and discuss Murray Bookchin’s thoughts on the origins of hierarchy and domination as well as his thoughts on the potential of humans to become nature “self realized.” Good fun. Of course this kind of conversation can go all sorts of places and it did. I don’t think I want to recount the details here, just wanted to mention how enjoyable conversations can be. I think I need more of these.

Technorati tags: communication, ideas

Technorati Tags: communication, ideas

Also known as Polemonium reptans, now blooming on this quiet little hillside in Missouri. These are the days that I close out the rest of the world. Peace and quiet, birdsong and small purple flowers.

Technorati tags: nature, wild flowers, gardening

Technorati Tags: Gardening, nature, Wild flowers

Wow. Guess I’ve been on some sort of blog vacation. Not sure why really. I suppose I just have not wanted to post. Life goes on and the planet spins days and nights. I’ve been outside alot watching the plants begin to slowly grow and the frogs wake up. I’ve put out a layer of fresh mulch and dug a new bed. I’ve carried up many, many rocks from the hillside to create a nice “creek” and a waterfall/bog area. Oh, and a spiral garden bed too.

Latest flowers to bloom: Jacobs Ladder, Plox, Bloodroot, and Anemonella. Practically every new plant put in last year has survived and returned which is great because I planted well over 100 plants, most of them native wild flowers.

Pictures soon.

Technorati Tags: Garden, Gardening

Birds spotted in the past week: Robin, Chipping Sparrow, White Breasted Nuthatch, Slate Gray Junco, Tufted Titmouse, Northern Flicker, Bluebirds, and many Cardinals.

Technorati tags: Missouri Birds, Bird Watching

Technorati Tags: Bird Watching, Missouri Birds

I meant to mention this the other day… Audit: Halliburton Overcharged U.S. $100M:

A military audit has found that defense contractor Halliburton may have overcharged the U.S. government more than $100 million under a no-bid oil contract in Iraq. The audit was completed in October but was only released Monday after being obtained by Democratic Congressman Henry Waxman.

Bastards.

Technorati tags: Iraq, War

Technorati Tags: Iraq, War

Juan Cole, via NPR:

With the guerilla war in Iraq showing no signs of abating, the prospects for successful military disengagement by the United States any time soon are bleak. The political picture is no rosier: the United States will increasingly find itself caught between support of the democratically elected government and resistance to program of implementing strict Islamic law. The United States long ago lost the ability to make policy in Iraq, being reduced to reacting on an ad hoc basis to the initiatives of local forces.

Two years after the U.S. invasion of Iraq, the guerrilla war waxes and wanes but gives no sign of ending soon. Top U.S. military commanders such as Gen. Richard Myers admit that it may go on for a decade.

Surely they saw this coming. My guess is that we’re looking at a scenario that the corporate war profiteers at Halliburton and the chicken hawks in the White House are quite excited about. U.S. tax dollars will be fed to the machine as fast as can be managed and the national debt will continue to skyrocket. The U.S. military bases in Iraq and the region will become increasingly permanent fixtures as the oil shortage becomes more obvious.

Technorati tags: Iraq, War, Empire

Technorati Tags: Dick Cheney, Empire, Iraq, Halliburton, War

The similarities are eerie. It’s not just the voice but the manner of speaking. Click the pic for a quick and dirty QuickTime movie which perfectly illustrates the point.

Technorati Tags: George Bush

Source: Iraq Coalition Casualties:

Take a look at the average per day for each month and the year ago month. There is an increase in nearly every case. Elections were held in January but as many pointed out elections do not equal democracy or freedom. Bush and his supporters went crazy over the purple fingers more out of desperation than real celebration and evidence will continue to mount that the invasion of Iraq was a huge mistake.

Democracy cannot be forced upon people, nor does freedom magically spring up overnight like a beanstalk. Funny thing, Bush wants the world to believe that,thanks to him, freedom is on the move. Far from it. All we have to do is take a look at the “Homeland” and we will see that we are not free and that democracy is a false facade.

In the future people will see that the end of World War 2 was a turning point for the planet. The U.S. emerged as the new empire and at the same moment, its citizens turned away from the responsibilities of “democracy” and embraced the “dream” of consumerism. The election of George W. Bush and 9/11/01 will prove to be another turning point: the collapse of the American Empire.

Technorati Tags: Empire, Iraq, War

I expect that I may be posting a little less often in the next couple of months as the weather warms and I venture outside to haul rocks, spread mulch, and other fun garden projects. I’ll post pictures when the plants wake from their winter slumber. It’s always fun to look at before and after photos. Last year I started with a grass lawn that had been minimally landscaped. Four months later we had a pond, mulch, 50+ native Missouri wild flowers (20+ species added to the land), and a nice bench to sit on. Almost every plant survived and I’m hoping to see them really thrive this year.

On the to-do list:

1. Haul rocks to better define the creek that was created to handle run-off water.
2. Pull decomposed mulch into beds and add fresh mulch.
3. Expand the garden area to double its current size.
4. Possibly create a second, slightly larger pond.

A few of the benefits of this kind of garden:

1. Native species supply food to birds and wildlife.
2. Native species require little to no watering once established.
3. No fertilizers needed.
4. No lawn mowing needed!

When we moved into deCleyre the first thing we did was remove the grass lawn in the front yard. It was gone by the end of the second summer. I doubt I’ll be able to accomplish that here in Missouri but every bit covered by mulch and garden is a reduction of mowing and oil consumed.

Technorati Tags: Garden, Gardening, Native Gardening, Native Landscaping, Native Wildflowers, Natural