Archive for August, 2007

Calling Nina Bassuk

At Duke’s Nicholas School of Environmental Science, researchers blow CO2 through stands of trees to determine the positive effect—if any—of global warming. Thus far, it isn’t conclusive that there is a benefit from any increase in carbon dioxide—a theoretical boon for trees. Some experts speculated that tree health would be the only silver lining of […]

The Lompoc Connection

The floating Savior heard the pleas. Cool weather arrived Friday afternoon like a soothing daydream—a bit of Lompoc right here in the heart of Pennsylvania’s Delaware Valley.After the shipping lanes from Great Britain and France were blockaded by the Germans in WWI, the US horticultural seed industry (vegetable, flower and herb seed) struggled to find […]

Book Don

Most books have some measure of relevance, but the “greats” – the resonant ones – reflect a lifetime. One has to read heavily and strenuously in both classics and contemporaries in order to find the gold. Like Madame Bovary haunted by the crippled idiot, and Anna Karenina spooked by the vision of the railroad worker’s […]

Pint of View

After a few beers, I decided to write a self-indulgent blog entry. I like escape movies, so long as they’re mindless. But I’m afraid James Bond has become a serious “art film” subject. Thank God for Jaguar Paw. First, the “new” Bond flick. Although Daniel Craig is a welcome replacement for Pierce Brosnan, who was […]