October 27, 2014

Vote Early. Vote Often. Let's get the dead people to vote.

Take the SilverShadow Challenge, 2014.

As I was thinking in the library earlier (where I do my best thinking), there is an oft-quoted phrase of Vote Early, Vote Often which I have heard over the years, always in a joking manner. If only there was a way I could do just that. Then I had a brainstorm. Early voting has already started here, as in most places. I am going to go vote later today, to get it out of the way and also avoid any crowds or any problems on election day. After that, I'm going to try to get at least one more vote per day until election day. If I get just one, that would be 7 or 8 more votes instead of just one.

How you ask? By shaking the bushes. I'm going to email, phone, and otherwise harass, cajole and/or threaten my friends into voting who might not otherwise. This is crunch time. Surely I can get just one single person each day to go ahead and vote. Heck, if I have to I will even come and drive them to the polls. If successful, I will vote 8 or 9 times instead of just one.

GOTV 2014!
Peace.

October 24, 2014

This invasive plant is swallowing the U.S. Choking ecosystems, releasing carbon from the soil...

http://www.treehugger.com/natural-sciences/invasive-plant-swallowing-us-rate-50000-baseball-fields-year.html

In the dictionary next to the definition of "invasive species", they could show a photo of kudzu. Nothing seems to stop it: Above you can see it growing over trees in Atlanta, Georgia. Since it was first introduced to the U.S. at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia in 1876, it has been swallowing the country from an epicenter in the South-East at the rate of about 50,000 baseball fields per year, occupying an estimated 3,000,000 hectares today. Kudzu can grow up to 60 feet per season, or about one foot per day.

Kudzu is extremely bad for the ecosystems that it invades because it smothers other plants and trees under a blanket of leaves, hogging all the sunlight and keeping other species in its shade. It can also survive in low nitrogen areas and during droughts, allowing it to out-compete native species that don't have those superpowers. The only other plants that can compete with kudzu are other invasive species, so that doesn't really help...

The great kudzu invasion all started out with a mistake: The Soil Erosion Service and Civilian Conservation Corp intentionally planted it to control soil erosion in the state of Pennsylvania. It was then used in the South East to to provide shade to homes, and as an ornamental species.

But as you can see in the map above, the result is more like a fast-growing cancer than anything else. How can you get rid of a plant that covers around a quarter of the country?

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http://www.treehugger.com/natural-sciences/invasive-plant-swallowing-us-rate-50000-baseball-fields-year.html
More at the link. Much, much more.
(Please resist the urge to take this places it shouldn't go, lest you get in trouble with the mods- for those who may remember. Not sure there are too many who remember those days left around here, but you have been warned)

October 2, 2014

Check out what I found eyeing the Republican clown car:

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