Reflecting on my earlier post here, I decided to do some quick research on criticisms of the report that claimed that the “all in” or “dust to dust” energy cost of a Hummer was less than a Prius. Here’s some of what I found: 1. An interview with the President of the company that conducted the report said that the report assumed that trucks and SUVs would have much longer […]
An article today in the Independent quotes a report for the British Department for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs, which suggests that raising food organically may have, in some instances, more adverse impacts on the environment than traditional methods. One example given was the production of organic milk: [T]he researchers singled out milk as a particular example of the environmental challenges presented by organic farming. Organic milk requires 80 per […]
This post may convince you that the Blogosphere has become too accessible, but there is, I think, a point here, although to get to it you have to read about big socks. I have big feet: Size 12 American. For all my life, I’ve bought socks that say they are sized for shoe sizes 6 – 12, but are always too small — too small when you wear them the […]
The first stage of the French presidential election is in April, and so far the moderate-right candidate Nicholas Sarokzy has a growing lead over the Socialist candidate Segolene Royal. Although Ms. Royal is perhaps the most photogenic politician in the history of the world, she has stumbled in her campaign several times by making ill-considered remarks that mark her as, perhaps, not-ready-for-prime-time. Mr. Sarokzy, surprisingly, seems to be doing well […]
Suzie and I, a little behind the times, recently watched (for the first time) the entire seven seasons of the excellent TV show The West Wing in a period of about 2 months. We even managed to get the boys interested in it. The article below, in my old college-town newspaper, reminded me of the last season, when the Jimmy Smits character (Matt Sanchez) started his campaign for the Presidency. […]
One of my new years resolutions was to start blogging regularly again. For the last year I was teaching a class at Sonoma State University, which took up most of my spare time, leaving my blogging (and my guitar playing, and my French lessons) languishing. So I’m going to try to blog at least four times a week. We’ll see if that happens. I’ve also switched the blog to WordPress, […]
I’ve set up this blog to try out WordPress. We’ll see how it goes.
S’est dommage — this will be the final blog post from France this year. We are cleaning up the Barrands’ house, we bought our last batch of chocolates and other goodies to take back with us, we got the car washed and vacuumed it, checked the British Airways site for the latest news (today, both of our flights were OK, and it looks like some of the restrictions will be […]
My sister-in-law Yvette has requested some pictures of food we’ve had. I haven’t taken many pictures of food, it seeming odd to me to aim the camera at a plate, but it turns out I do have three, one of a salad plate Suzie got one evening, one of the dark pancake-type thing filled with ham, cheese, and egg, whose name I now forget, and one of two sweets. Were […]
Since we’ve had to get up and get the boys to their tennis camp by 9 am each day — which requires us to go down the mountain, then across most of Grenoble — we’ve started to feel like regular commuters. It’s a pretty commute. First you pass this sign: Then you continue down a winding mountain road, with views of Grenoble below: Even after you come out of the […]