Categories
Priroda i društvo

Neugodna istina

U posljednje vrijeme puno sam čitao o ekologiji, zaštiti okoliša i održivom razvoju, a sve je skupa nekako krenulo s Presentation Zen bloga kojeg pratim zato što želim naučiti nešto više o umijeću prezentiranja. Al Gore, osoba koja je trebala postati američki predsjednik u posljednjih trideset godina puno je vremena provela u educiranju javnosti o potrebi zaštite okoliša i održivom razvoju. Tih 30 godina se pretvorilo jednu sjajnu multimedijsku prezentaciju, a prezentacija se pretvorila u sjajan dokumentarac koji se poput ovog teksta zove “Inconvenient truth” (naručio sam si Inconvenient truth knjigu no nije u prodaji u europi pa ću se malo načekati, a za film doista ne znam, no kada bi nekome poslali email i zamolili ga lijepo možda nam usliši želju).

20 minutnu verziju Al Goreove prezentacije možete vidjeti i na ovom videu koji je snimljen na TED konferenciji u Montereyu u veljači ove godine.

S druge strane, jedan od daleko najzanimljivijih blogova koje sam svojevremeno stavio u svoj blogroll je i TreeHugger koji se dnevno bave različitim zelenim temama. Iako sam njihov blog stavio u favouritse zbog jednog ili dva zanimljiva teksta, skužio sam kako sam u posljednjih nekoliko mjeseci razvio interes za teme kojima se bave. Ovih dana, proučavam neke zelene inicijative i tražim načine kako smanjiti emisije CO2, odnosno kako svoj život/tvrtku učiniti zelenijim (imam nekolicinu zanimljivih tema o tome o čemu ću pisati u skorijem razdoblju, o prvoj temi možda već slijedeći tjedan). I tako surfajući okolo, naletio sam na iznimno dobro poznati politički site DailyKos koji je uz pomoć svojih čitatelja i gotovo 10.000 komentara uspio kreirati pravu pravcatu energetsku strategiju koja bi mogla pomoći americi da do 2020 godine ostvari energetsku neovisnost. Molim Vas da bacite pogled na tu strategiju koja je dobro razrađena, definira probleme, daje konkretne podatke o postojećem stanju, predlaže konkretne mjere koje je potrebno učiniti i računa trošak implementacije rješenja. Zanimljivo je da bi mnoga od predloženih rješenja mogli i mi iskoristiti. Koliko bi recimo samo država mogla uštediti kada bi odlučili koristiti diesel automobile (ili hibridne ili na plin), štedne žarulje ili počeli koristiti desetine drugih sitnih ekoloških mjera?

Kada bi morali nabrzaka izrecitirati pet mjera za povećanje energetske učinkovitosti (uštedu energije), koje bi to mjere bile?

Misao dana:
You can’t make somebody understand something if their salary depends upon them not understanding it

Categories
Muzika

On the Turning Away… (7:57, Pink Floyd, Delicate Sound of Thunder Disc 1)

Ulovilo me da sam si spržio kompilaciju Pink Floyda, stavio je u CD player u autu i sada bih se htio voziti nekuda daleko i slušati muziku, jako, jako glasno. Možda mi se želja ispuni slijedeći tjedan (hehe).

On the turning awayRazmišljajući o postu kojeg sam napisao o koncertu Franz Ferdinanda prije nekoliko dana, skužio sam da sam napisao jednu veliku istinu a to je da pojedini bandovi imaju vrlo karakteristični stil, i tako primjerice svaka stvar od U2 ili Pink Floyda ima svoju karakterističnu notu i zvuk. Svatko od njih iscijedi iz svima jednakih instrumenata vrlo karakteristični zvuk. U2 ili Pink Floyde mogu prepoznati žmirečki, u prvih nekoliko nota (sekundi) izvođenja. Ima tih autora još, no ova dva su definitivno istjerala svoj zvuk.

Usput rečeno, bio sam na koncertu Pink Floyda u Bečkom Novom mestu prije dvanaestak godina u doba njihove famozne Pulse turneje koju su neposredno nakon toga ovjekovječili dvostrukim CD albumom, a prije nekoliko dana/tjedana izašao je i dvostruki DVD kojeg bih svakako htio nabaviti.

On the turning away
From the pale and downtrodden
And the words they say
Which we wont understand
Dont accept that whats happening
Is just a case of others suffering
Or youll find that youre joining in
The turning away

Its a sin that somehow
Light is changing to shadow
And casting its shroud
Over all we have known
Unaware how the ranks have grown
Driven on by a heart of stone
We could find that were all alone
In the dream of the proud

On the wings of the night
As the daytime is stirring
Where the speechless unite
In a silent accord
Using words you will find are strange
And mesmerized as they light the flame
Feel the new wind of change
On the wings of the night

No more turning away
From the weak and the weary
No more turning away
From the coldness inside
Just a world that we all must share
Its not enough just to stand and stare
Is it only a dream that therell be
No more turning away?

Categories
Literatura

Bulwer Lytton natječaj

Bulwer Lytton literarni je međunarodni natječaj u čast i sjećanje na viktorijanskog pisca Edward George Earl Bulwer-Lyttona (1803-1873). Cilj natjecanja je vrlo jednostavan – pronalaženje najjednostavnije i najlošije rečenice koja otvara zamišljenu/nepostojeću novelu. Iako je Lytton dobro poznat po svojoj noveli “Posljednji dani Pompeja” (objavljene 1834 godine) i iz koje nam dolazi glasovita tvrdnja kako: “Pero je jače od mača!”, njegova najpoznatija je u stvari rečenica kojom je 1834 godine započeo roman Paul Clifford a koju je bezobrazno godinama zloupotrebljavao Snoopy i koja glasi “It was a dark and stormy night”.

Rezultati natječaja za 2006 godinu su ovdje i besramno kopiram neke od najboljih:

Pobjednik natječaja za 2006:
Detective Bart Lasiter was in his office studying the light from his one small window falling on his super burrito when the door swung open to reveal a woman whose body said you’ve had your last burrito for a while, whose face said angels did exist, and whose eyes said she could make you dig your own grave and lick the shovel clean.

Skoro pa pobjednik za 2006:
“I know what you’re thinking, punk,” hissed Wordy Harry to his new editor, “you’re thinking, ‘Did he use six superfluous adjectives or only five?’ – and to tell the truth, I forgot myself in all this excitement; but being as this is English, the most powerful language in the world, whose subtle nuances will blow your head clean off, you’ve got to ask yourself one question: ‘Do I feel loquacious?’ – well do you, punk?”

Kategorija “Avantura”, nečasni spomen:
It was a day, like any other day, in that Linus got up, faced the sunrise, used his inhaler, applied that special cream between his toes, wrote a quick note and put it in a bottle, and wished he’d been stranded on the island with something other than 40 cases each of inhalers, decorative bottles, and special toe cream.

Kategorija “Detektivsta fikcija”, pobjednik:
It was a dreary Monday in September when Constable Lightspeed came across the rotting corpse that resembled one of those zombies from Michael Jackson’s “Thriller,” except that it was lying down and not performing the electric slide.

Kategorija “Ružičasta proza”, pobjednik:
A single sparkling tear fell from Little Mary’s cheek onto the sidewalk, then slid into the storm drain, there to join in its course the mighty waters of the Los Angeles River and, eventually, Long Beach Harbor, with its state-of-the-art container-freight processing facilities.

Kategorija “Romansa”, pobjednik:
Despite the vast differences it their ages, ethnicity, and religious upbringing, the sexual chemistry between Roberto and Heather was the most amazing he had ever experienced; and for the entirety of the Labor Day weekend they had sex like monkeys on espresso, not those monkeys in the zoo that fling their feces at you, but more like the monkeys in the wild that have those giant red butts, and access to an espresso machine.

Kategorija “Kaubojski”, pobjednik:
His mistake, Shut-eye McBlamaway reflected, was not in standing up to a gang of desperadoes and rustlers on the high country, but in standing up to a gang of desperadoes and rustlers who had just left the set of a Sergio Leone shoot, and were thus equipped with those guns that never run out of ammunition.

Kategorija “Nekategorizirano”, časni spomen:
Kathy, who had bound her breasts and cropped her hair, and lied about her gender to join a monastery of Jesuits in northern Kentucky, until she was discovered one night in the shower, winced as the dentist pulled her tooth.

Kategorija “Nekategorizirano”, časni spomen:
Withdrawing his hand from her knee, the English professor stormed, “Ending a sentence with a preposition is the sort of nonsense up with which I will not put,” although she had merely looked at his hand and asked, “What are you doing that for?” in a sentence intended to end the proposition.

Kategorija “Nekategorizirano”, časni spomen:
I saw her from across the room and knew I had to meet her, not because of her ample bosom, or her full lips, or her beautiful creamy skin, or the way her hair was twisted into a nice tight bun, or the buttoned-up blouse that begged to be torn off her body, or the skirt that was perhaps a size too small, but because she was my kid’s teacher and I was here for the parent-teacher conference.