Bill Murray's Blog, page 37
April 29, 2019
Quotes: Greenland Is Falling Apart
The photos are mine. Text is from Greenland Is Falling Apart by Robinson Meyer in The Atlantic magazine:
“If Greenland were suddenly transported to the central United States, it would be a very bad day for about 65 million people, who would be crushed instantly. But for the sake of science journalism, imagine that Greenland’s southernmost tip displaced Brownsville, Texas—the state’s southernmost city—so that its icy glaciers kissed mainland Mexico and the Gulf thereof. Even then, Greenland would stretch all the way north, clear across the United States, its northern tenth crossing the Canadian border into Ontario and Manitoba. Kansas City, Oklahoma City, and Iowa City would all be goners. So too would San Antonio, Memphis, and Minneapolis. Its easternmost peaks would slam St. Louis and play in Peoria; its northwestern glaciers would rout Rapid City, South Dakota, and meander into Montana. At its center point, near Des Moines, roughly two miles of ice would rise from the surface.”
April 28, 2019
Photographer Eric Hundert
Nice photos here from photographer Eric Hundert.
April 26, 2019
Pictures from the Road, Saigon
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I’ve never much tried to pick individual stocks for gain. My reasoning is, people dedicate their lives to understanding the stock market, have far more expertise than I, and still great hordes of them turn out to be wrong. In a similar way, I don’t presume special knowledge on “the dichotomy between those who revere saints and those who rail against their hypocrisy.” But it was an enjoyable experience to be among believers at Easter mass at Notre Dame Cathedral, Saigon.
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Those pop-up greeting cards are a thing in Saigon.
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Flower Blossom soup, Nam Pla Thai restaurant.
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Can’t recommend the Spicies of Feet. Can recommend the restaurant. Can’t find if it has a web site.
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You just never know.
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It gets hot in the Ben Thanh market, Saigon.
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On the street, too.
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Ad from Truong Van Ben Soap Company in Ho Chi Minh City Museum.
See you next week.
April 25, 2019
Photo a Day
It’s hard to imagine 50s, 60s and 70s French and American occupiers would have pictured sleepy old Saigon looking like this in April, 2019.
These (mostly) daily photos from a slow trip around the world are collecting on Earthphotos.com. See the archive page Around the World, Slowly.
Overmatched
Sri Lanka is beautiful, seductive, exotic and full of charming, generous people, but reviews of the government’s general disfunction and lack of just basic governing ability are every one just devastating.
April 24, 2019
Photo a Day, Vietnam
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These (mostly) daily photos from a slow trip around the world are collecting in one place on Earthphotos.com. See the archive page Around the World, Slowly.
Quotes: Choosing Wisely on Climate
Joan Harvey is a fellow contributor to the Monday Magazine at 3QuarksDaily. Her latest column addresses the importance of developing the right strategy to address climate change.
“If we’re going to solve this problem on which the future of humanity depends, we need focus. For the layman, the question becomes: Are you a green consumer? Or are you a green citizen? A green consumer may own a Prius, recycle diligently, and worry about plastic straws. A green citizen focuses on policy, and makes sure the people they elect also understand good energy policy. They recognize which policies will actually be able to move us toward zero emissions in the next three decades and push for these.”
I like her idea of precision intervention:
“Half the carbon in the U.S. economy goes through monopoly pipes and wires, and these are controlled by Public Utilities Commissions in each of the 50 states. Each has five members, so there are 250 individuals who control half the carbon in the country…. If you go to them with an ethical or technical argument, they will listen to you…. This is relatively easy leverage.”
She’s right, too, that
“doing a little bit of everything is not going to save the planet. If we’re going to solve this problem on which the future of humanity depends, we need focus.”
But while they may not save the world, there doesn’t seem to be any harm in mini-crusades like this one here in Ho Chi Minh City:
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April 23, 2019
Photo A Day, More Ho Chi Minh City
And again, Ho Chi Minh City, April 2019, this one a three-shot panorama from atop the Ben Thanh Tower. If you’re patient and allow it to load from this link (it will take a minute), you can explore the entire 44 inches of the width of this photo in detail.
These (mostly) daily photos are collecting in one place on Earthphotos.com. We’ll be on the road for a few months, so we’ve called the archive page Around the World, Slowly. Come see.
April 22, 2019
Photo a Day: Ho Chi Minh City
Ho Chi Minh City, April 2019.
These (mostly) daily photos are collecting in one place on Earthphotos.com. We’ll be on the road for a few months, so we’ve called the archive page Around the World, Slowly. Come see.
Nowadays, the Money Is the Message
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Government messages like this used to be ubiquitous in Vietnam. Today things are way less doctrinaire as Ho Chi Minh City reaches for the sky. Everywhere you look there’s space for rent. Like here:
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And look, there’s an old-fashioned government-approved-style cartoon slogan at that top of that building. A closer look:
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Google Translate has it as “determined to build Ho Chi Minh City with good quality, civilized, modern and love.”
And good old capitalist rent. Phone numbers just down the side of the building.
