Books
For some summer fun, we started a book group. Read on!
Current BookOur first book was Barbara Kingsolver's new book on local foods, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. The book is in Acton and Boxborough libraries and is now available in paperback at Willow Books. |
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In the book, Kingsolver and her family describe their move from parched Tucson, Arizona to a small farm in rural southwest Virginia and their year dedicated to eating food they grew themselves or purchased from rural neighbors. She chronicles their experience, from the planning stage, through preparation, planting, and harvest, right through to the starving month (March where we live) and beyond. Kingsolver describes all the ups and downs, family changes, her daughter Lily's chicken business, how to cope with zucchini season, and turkey sex. She also presents relevant commentary on the challenges to small farms and the downsides of factory farming techniques used to produce the majority of U.S. food products. Sidebars from her husband and teen daughter Camille add some spice, as do the many recipes scattered through the book and on their website. |
Book: Censoring Science...
I bought this book at the LexGWAC talk by Mark Bowen and Jim Hansen. Fascinating and blunt review of political appointees in NASA and their attempts to censor public statements by Hansen and other scientists in any topic related to global warming. Disturbing. A quick read, though a bit hard to follow at times. Very enlightening.
Hansen and Bowen spoke in Lexington on the evening of June 1 in Lexington's town hall. There were about 400 people present, including a number of folks from Harvard and Groton Locals, and film crews from C-SPAN and NECN. Hansen spoke mostly about recent research, including some visuals taken from a paper released in April 2008. Some of these graphics are in the book as well. We were a bit surprised the talk didn't focus more on censorship. See Hansen's website for more information and links to papers.
By the way, Mark Bowen's previous book, Thin Ice, chronicles Bowen's travels with glacialogist Lonnie Thompson during his travels to many of the world's glaciers to take ice core samples. This book is in the Boxborough Library and I can highly recommend it. As compared to books about mountain climbing in general, it was interesting to see how scientists endure high altitudes and extreme cold in the process of doing science, actually working in the environment. Bowen and Thompson will be featured in an upcoming NOVA episode to be aired July 23. See Bowen's blog here.
Both Bowen and Hansen recommended RealClimate.org as a good website to read and participate in scientific discussions related to climate change. RealClimate is moderated by a number of climatologists, including Gavin Schmidt who works in NASA GISS, the research group currently headed by Jim Hansen.
Oh, and the video is online
Forgot to mention the video and slides for the talk are available online at www.lexgwac.org. The slides are similar to those in the book and are also available in Jim Hansen's April 2008 publication, on his Columbia website. Link is available at LexGWAC.