Fix or famine?

The Baltic Sea isn't in great shape, due to its shape and the increasing population around its shores. That shape means that the circulation and refreshment of the water is restricted, which leads to excess nutrients, which leads to eutrophication, which leads to bottom anoxia, i.e., no oxygen in the waters on the bottom, which kills the organisms living on the bottom, or drives them away, and reduces the food supply for the fish and their habitat -- all-in-all, not a good situation.  There are two ways to address such a situation -- reduce the nutrient input, or geo-engineer a fix, like pumping oxygenated water down to the bottom.  Such a plan is going to be demonstrated, but some researchers are saying geo-engineering could make more problems than it solves.  My view is:  test and verify.  The Earth's beleaguered ecosystems need all the help they can get.  So I don't agree with not testing a pilot project.

Saving the Baltic:  geoengineering efforts to mix oxygen into the Deep Baltic should be abandoned

Musical tribute to the 4th

Original motion picture soundtrack, 1776:    Is Anybody There?

What to do with time on your hands

Former French President Nicholas Sarkozy is married to a beautiful former model and former rock star escort (Mick Jagger and Eric Clapton), and since he just recently lost the reelection battle, it appears that they both needed something to do.

Former French First Lady pregnant with third child at age 44

The six (seven?) different types of sports movies

One of the things I want to write about is sports movie music, for which we owe a great deal of respect to Jerry Goldsmith.  But as I was thinking about that, I thought about the plots and stories in sports movies, and came up with several categories.  Below are the results of this line of thinking.

 1. Bio-pic:  following the life of a famous athlete.  Ali, Raging Bull, Cinderella Man, The Express, Seabiscuit, Cobb (book), Coach Carter, Pride of the Yankees
 
2. Coming-of-age story: Athlete, (frequently self-absorbed) has to mature to a) win, b)  become a better person, and c) learn that sports isn't everything.   So many:  Vision Quest, Youngblood, All the Right Moves, Varsity Blues, Days of  Thunder, Bend it Like Beckham ...
 
3. Underdog:  athlete or team that is too [small, underfunded, underskilled, disadvantaged] gets [unlikely break, new coach, unexpected inspiration, great player] and  [ wins championship, comes close to winning, has moment-of-a-lifetime,  learns valuable life lessons]. So many:  The Rookie, The Mighty Ducks, The Replacements, Hoosiers, The Color of Money, The Longest Yard, Breaking Away, Rocky, The Bad News Bears, The Karate Kid, Major League, Million Dollar Baby...

4. Literary adaptation. (Semi-Tough, The Natural, For Love of the Game, North Dallas Forty, Moneyball, Brian's Song, Friday Night Lights, Any Given Sunday, Seabiscuit, Secretariat, Bang the Drum Slowly)

5. Absurd comedy, the "Will Ferrell, Adam Sandler, Caddyshack" division.  (Caddyshack, Blades of Glory, The Waterboy, Happy Gilmore, Kingpin, BASEketball, Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story, Talladega Nights, Slapshot)

6. Event movie:  About a real event or season.  (The Greatest Game Ever Played, Glory Road, Remember the Titans, Invictus, Miracle, We Are Marshall, Rudy, Eight Men Out,  A League of Their Own, Chariots of Fire)

Hybrids:  The Rookie - underdog and event movie
Rudy - underdog and event movie
Miracle - the ultimate underdog and event movie
Breaking Away - underdog and coming-of-age
The Bad News Bears - underdog and absurd comedy
Cobb - biopic and literary adaptation
Seabiscuit - biopic and literary adaptation
Semi-Tough - literary adaptation and absurd comedy
Glory Road - event movie based on a book
Vision Quest - literary adaptation and coming-of-age plot


There are a few movies that are tough calls:  could I call these sports rom-coms?
Bull Durham
Heaven Can Wait
Tin Cup
White Men Can't Jump
Jerry Maguire
Field of Dreams

Czech this one off

The Czech Republic recently completed a power upgrade at the Dukovany nuclear plant. And they have a populace largely in favor of nuclear power.

Dukovany raises output to match Temelin

The nuclear power plant of Dukovany has completed a project to raise its output from 1,760 MW to 2,000 MW. A plant spokesman told the Czech Press Agency that the EDU+ project had included the replacement and modernisation of eight turbine sets, generators and transformers and a rise in output among all four nuclear reactors.

Poll: support for nuclear energy on rise 

More than 60 percent of Czechs are for in favour of the further development of nuclear energy in the country, a new poll by the STEM agency suggests, indicating that doubts over nuclear power raised by last year´s disaster at the Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan have continued to drop. Support for nuclear energy among Czechs, however, has not reached previous levels of support such as in 2009 when more than 70 percent were in favour. The number of those who are confidant that electricity production by nuclear power plants could be covered by other sources has meanwhile decreased: fewer than half of those polled replied that other sources would be sufficient. More than three-quarters of Czechs also fear energy dependency, another factor that STEM took into account with regards to growing support for nuclear energy in the country.

I'm glad our Czech mates have a sensible outlook on nuclear power.  (Badda-bing)

Late June Quinnipiac poll finds swing state swing to Obama

Note:  this happened before the surprising Supreme Court preservation of the Obama health care program.

Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania swing toward Obama

-- FLORIDA: Obama 45 - Romney 41 OHIO: Obama 47 - Romney 38 PENNSYLVANIA: Obama 45 - Romney 39 Voters in Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania support President Barack Obama's new immigration policy and are divided on whether the president or Gov. Mitt Romney would be better for their personal economic future, as they give Obama leads in these three critical swing states, a razor thin 4 points in Florida, a healthy 9 points in Ohio and 6 points in Pennsylvania, according to a Quinnipiac University Swing State Poll released today.

There's still a long, long way to go -- and lots of money to be spent -- and likely one or two near-collapses of European countries due to debt (Greece, Spain, Portugal, Ireland all in the running) -- so the outcome is not at all a sure thing, so this type of news is merely hopeful.   I still think and hope that Romney's penchant for both lying about (when he has to) and avoiding  issues (every chance he gets) will come to the fore big-time when the real campaign gets underway.

And I sure would like to have an Etch-a-Sketch bumper sticker (such as the one I designed below).

Did you see these images?

Lots and lots of people have posted and reposted about the Wellcome microscopic photography awards, so I ain't being original here, but the images are so amazing that I want a link to them on my blog, too.  Like many others, I was fascinated by the diatom that looks like a radioactivity symbol -- which appeals to my nuclear sentiments, natch.   I tried searching to see it it was identifiable as a species, but I couldn't find anything.

Wellcome Image Awards 2012 (HuffingtonPost slide show)

Yes, some radioactivity leaked into the ocean near the Fukushima plant, but I didn't think this was necessary