Babbly Lucy

Awesome. (In the spirit of thisanimalisawesome.)

Thu, 01 Jul 2010 21:54:02 +0900

Awesome.

(In the spirit of thisanimalisawesome.)

— Tom Toles (via savingpaper, inothernews)

Fri, 25 Jun 2010 22:45:09 +0900

— Tom Toles (via savingpaper, inothernews)

Hey, Now BP Is Doing Stuff In Alaska That'll Piss You Off

Fri, 25 Jun 2010 22:44:02 +0900

Hey, Now BP Is Doing Stuff In Alaska That'll Piss You Off:

Via savingpaper:

BP is moving ahead with the controversial project to drill for oil three miles off the coast of Alaska in spite of the Obama administration’s moratorium on offshore drilling. The project, called Liberty, has been classified by regulators as an “onshore” project because it sits on an artificial island — a 31-acre pile of gravel in about 22 feet of water — built by BP.

And then there’s what those Bush-era regulators chose not to regulate:

Rather than conducting their own independent analysis, federal regulators, in a break from usual practice, allowed BP in 2007 to write its own environmental review for the project as well as its own consultation documents relating to the Endangered Species Act, according to two scientists from the Alaska office of the federal Mineral Management Service that oversees drilling.

The environmental assessment was taken away from the agency’s unit that typically handles such reviews, and put in the hands of a different division that was more pro-drilling, said the scientists, who discussed the process because they remained opposed to how it was handled.

“The whole process for approving Liberty was bizarre,” one of the federal scientists said.

Pumzi, a 2009 Kenyan short film, looks amazing. (Via io9)

Tue, 22 Jun 2010 22:08:19 +0900

Pumzi, a 2009 Kenyan short film, looks amazing. (Via io9)

AP Analysis: BP Spill Response Plans Severely Flawed

Wed, 09 Jun 2010 22:15:35 +0900

AP Analysis: BP Spill Response Plans Severely Flawed:

savingpaper:

BREAKING NEWS, EVERYONE.

jstn: NOAA map showing 3,858 oil platforms along the gulf coast...

Wed, 02 Jun 2010 06:47:05 +0900

jstn:

NOAA map showing 3,858 oil platforms along the gulf coast as of October, 2006. Katrina and other hurricanes sank or otherwise disabled over 100 of them the year before.

I was surprised to see how many there were, but I guess I shouldn’t have been. Prior to this calamity my two main sources of knowledge regarding oil production were There Will Be Blood and certain scenes from Armageddon. I’ve been trying to acquaint myself with some actual data.

We rank third in oil production in the world and that a third of our production happens off shore. We account for about a quarter of world consumption and a tenth of production (behind Saudi Arabia and Russia). Almost half our supply is used to make gasoline. BP is the fourth biggest company in the world but the third biggest oil company after Shell and Exxon.

I was horrified to read about another spill that happened earlier this month in Nigeria that seems to be amongst the worst ever and has yet to receive much media attention at all. That’s apparently par for the course there.

The Exxon Valdez is 31st in the world ranking of all time oil spills, and since it happened it’s become the “Library of Congress” to which all other spills are inevitably compared. This is quite useful because frankly there’s too many units available for talking about oil and it seems like every news source uses a different one. Wikipedia has tonnage but the American media generally prefers gallons, and the oil industry itself uses barrels. It’s difficult to compare and contrast the horror without converting to a common base. One “Exxon Valdez” is reasonable shorthand for “enough oil to fuck shit up”.

The exact quantities are always fuzzy, of course. The NY Times reports a range of anywhere from 2.25 Exxon Valdezes all the way up to 9 for the Gulf so far, and that’s under the glare of the American public. The one in Nigeria was supposedly 2.5, but who knows. The US produces 19.5 EVs every day.

Not that it’s any comfort, but we still haven’t reached the proportions of the Gulf War spill, which was an astounding 43 EVs. If the one in our own gulf keeps going through August at the most pessimistic rate we could easily see another 20, totaling three times as much as now.

CNN has a good map and USA Today has a good article illustrating the current offshore leasing situation by state. It’s easy to imagine oil executives seeing the planet’s surface as a real life Starcraft map. If we’re lucky, someone will tell them about the hundred billion dollars for every human being on Earth lying in the minerals of the asteroid belt.

Is it asking too much for underwater aliens à la The Abyss to reveal themselves to humanity and show us the error of our ways?

(via karmcity)

drewgilbert: Thanks Neal!

Wed, 26 May 2010 19:30:57 +0900

drewgilbert:

Thanks Neal!

kiameku: Paola Pivi Untitled (donkey) 2003 Photographic print,...

Thu, 20 May 2010 18:31:19 +0900

kiameku:

Paola Pivi
Untitled (donkey)
2003
Photographic print, aluminium, frame / Photographie couleur, aluminium, cadre
71 x 88 inches / 180 x 224 cm

I wasn’t even around to see this photo hung on Brown University’s science library, but school lore is strong enough that it instantly reminds me of my alma mater. Well, now I know who it’s by!

drewgilbert: This 8-Bit attack on NYC is the greatest thing I...

Sat, 10 Apr 2010 12:25:18 +0900

drewgilbert:

This 8-Bit attack on NYC is the greatest thing I have seen all week. YOU MUST VIEW IT.

Tumblr informs me that my blog has turned 2! This is perhaps the...

Fri, 26 Mar 2010 19:47:00 +0900

Tumblr informs me that my blog has turned 2! This is perhaps the longest continuous blog I have ever kept! Woohoo!

In other news, I’m going to Taiwan in the morning (driving out at 5:30am, but my flight’s not until 3pm… there’s something ridiculous about this…). I’ll be flooding this thing with photos after April 4.

drewgilbert: ALIEN VS POOH. Hilarious! Thanks to Nick Locking!

Thu, 25 Mar 2010 21:36:20 +0900

drewgilbert:

ALIEN VS POOH.

Hilarious!

Thanks to Nick Locking!

The only Lady Gaga spin-off I will...

Thu, 25 Mar 2010 21:33:20 +0900

The only Lady Gaga spin-off I will reblog.

goodolddays:

fuckyeahladygaga:

(via starfucks)

Cake Versus Pie: A Scientific...

Thu, 18 Mar 2010 07:22:54 +0900

Cake Versus Pie: A Scientific Approach

(via savingpaper, misterpatches, bestrooftalkever)

McSweeney's: A Short History of the Norse Occupation of Dublin, for Bostonians

Thu, 18 Mar 2010 07:19:32 +0900

McSweeney's: A Short History of the Norse Occupation of Dublin, for Bostonians:

savingpaper:

So fuckin’ like 1200 years ago, mostah the young guys livin’ ovah in Nahway were havin’ a real tough time, just sittin’ ‘round the fahm thinkin’ tah ‘emselves, “All the good land’s already been takin’ here in Nahway, dad’s gonnah leave the fuckin’ fahm tah my oldah brothah since he’s oldah ‘en me, n’ if I don’t go n’ get myself signed up with one’ah the union guys down at the docks I’m gonnah end up livin’ the restah my life like some poor kid from Dahchestah who nevah got outtah the fuckin’ projects.” So there’s all these young Nahwegian guys hangin’ ‘round down at the docks n’ whenevah they get enough’ah ‘em, they’d put tahgethah a crew n’ then they’d just set sail on tah wherevah the fuck they felt like goin’ n’ then when they got tah whereevah the fuck it was they were goin’ they’d do some plundah’n n’ pillage’n fah awhile.

Not Bostonian enough to have the accent, but Bostonian enough to want to post all things like this for giggles.

tatsurokiuchi: bestiario: Kenichi Kuriyagawa Illustration 2...

Wed, 17 Mar 2010 19:50:40 +0900

tatsurokiuchi:

bestiario:

Kenichi Kuriyagawa Illustration 2 (via sandiv999)

:-) Current home.

pibbplusredvines: Host: For 100 points, complete this famous...

Tue, 23 Feb 2010 19:50:25 +0900

pibbplusredvines:

Host: For 100 points, complete this famous saying, “Better late than…”
Blanche: Pregnant!
The Golden Girls 3x16 - Grab That Dough

(Via goodolddays, leatherpumpkin, unicornery)

My camera and the lens I want… because I just discovered...

Sat, 06 Feb 2010 10:53:00 +0900

My camera and the lens I want… because I just discovered this lens matching site.

Beautiful animation. (Via Kitsune Noir)

Wed, 27 Jan 2010 22:23:35 +0900

Beautiful animation.

(Via Kitsune Noir)

(Via karenh, everybell) colinmford: I love this unique,...

Wed, 27 Jan 2010 21:20:01 +0900

(Via karenh, everybell)

colinmford:

I love this unique, letterpressed book by Ally Stoneham. The type, the cut outs, and the subtle deboss for the outlines… everything just comes together.

Realized I haven’t uploaded my Alcatraz photos…...

Tue, 26 Jan 2010 22:28:02 +0900

Realized I haven’t uploaded my Alcatraz photos… here’s a start.