Books, Culture And The History Of Ideas

Should public libraries act as they repositories of our culture, our history, our thoughts and ideas as a civilization or should they cater to pop culture? According to the Washington Post, it is increasingly the latter. Libraries are ruthlessly dumping books that have not been checked out frequently enough in an arbitrary period of time.

You can't find "The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire" at the Fairfax City Regional Library anymore. Or "The Education of Henry Adams" at Sherwood Regional. Want Emily Dickinson's "Final Harvest"? Don't look to the Kingstowne branch.

It's not that the books are checked out. They're just gone. No one was reading them, so librarians took them off the shelves and dumped them.

Along with those classics, thousands of novels and nonfiction works have been eliminated from the Fairfax County collection after a new computer software program showed that no one had checked them out in at least 24 months.

Public libraries have always weeded out old or unpopular books to make way for newer titles. But the region's largest library system is taking turnover to a new level.

Like Borders and Barnes & Noble, Fairfax is responding aggressively to market preferences, calculating the system's return on its investment by each foot of space on the library bookshelves — and figuring out which products will generate the biggest buzz. So books that people actually want are easy to find, but many books that no one is reading are gone — even if they are classics.

Having been forced to read enough books that were considered "classics" at the time, I sympathize to some extent. But a lot of the "popular" books of today are eminently forgettable. The idea that these books will actually have someone reading them in a year or two is pretty funny. But the libraries in some areas have chosen that path.

As much as I personally loathe Ernest Hemingway, his writings have been assigned to countless high schoolers through the years. We lose that (boring) commonality at our own peril.

Middle Ground

Longterm readers know that this blog laughs - quite a lot, actually - at the extreme histrionics of the global warming fanatics. Why? Because they are almost totally driven by an extremist "blame man for it all" position. Last I looked, man's activities appear - it is not at all conclusively proven despite what extremists say - to have added a few hundred parts per billion of CO2 to the atmosphere. The engineer in me says that that is not anywhere near enough to cause all - or even the majority - of the effects the Earth is seeing right now.

Is there warming? Sure. Is it a global catastrophe? The jury is very definitely out on that despite what you hear from the Algore legions. Is it something we should be at least concerned about? I'll grant that it probably is worth trying to make sure that mankind is not adding to the problem. There are things we can - and should - do to cut carbon emissions. Not out of hysterical belief in a doomsday scenario, but out of simple pragmatism. Some of those things will fly directly into the face of other environmental catastrophe scenarios, however. (We should be pushing like heck for much more nuclear power.)

So today (and I missed this earlier) comes this article from the New York Times that says there is an emerging "middle ground" of scientists who are not a) screeching hysterics crying that we are all going to roast - after all the polar bears are dead or, b) paid shills of the evil energy industry who is just trying to keep us all down, man.

In other words, the sane.

Amid the shouting lately about whether global warming is a human-caused catastrophe or a hoax, some usually staid climate scientists in the usually invisible middle are speaking up.

The discourse over the issue has been feverish since Hurricane Katrina. Seizing the moment, many environmental campaigners, former Vice President Al Gore and some scientists have portrayed the growing human influence on the climate as an unfolding disaster that is already measurably strengthening hurricanes, spreading diseases and amplifying recent droughts and deluges.

Conservative politicians and a few scientists, many with ties to energy companies, have variously countered that human-driven warming is inconsequential, unproved or a manufactured crisis.

A third stance is now emerging, espoused by many experts who challenge both poles of the debate.

They agree that accumulating carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping smokestack and tailpipe gases probably pose a momentous environmental challenge, but say the appropriate response is more akin to buying fire insurance and installing sprinklers and new wiring in an old, irreplaceable house (the home planet) than to fighting a fire already raging.

“Climate change presents a very real risk,” said Carl Wunsch, a climate and oceans expert at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. “It seems worth a very large premium to insure ourselves against the most catastrophic scenarios. Denying the risk seems utterly stupid. Claiming we can calculate the probabilities with any degree of skill seems equally stupid.”

Many in this camp seek a policy of reducing vulnerability to all climate extremes while building public support for a sustained shift to nonpolluting energy sources.

They have made their voices heard in Web logs, news media interviews and at least one statement from a large scientific group, the World Meteorological Organization. In early December, that group posted a statement written by a committee consisting of most of the climatologists assessing whether warming seas have affected hurricanes.

Robert Kennedy, Jr. and his attempts to blame Katrina on global warming aside, the hurricane hysteria didn't work out so well this year. There are serious questions about the accuracy - or the sanity - of the worst of the predictions. There is a middle ground and one that is workable and achievable. It is about time some of the less strident and apocalyptic voices had a say in this. More about this here.

UPDATE: And welcome back Scott Burgess  - with some information you will not be reading in the media.

We Told You, Didn’t we?

We warned you, repeatedly, that George Lucas planned a coup at the Rose Parade, didn't we? Did anyone listen? No, they thought we were joking. Well here's the proof.

(Real Tournament of Roses Site here. The 501st "Vader's Fist" site is here.)

UPDATE: Breitbart has a good picture posted.

UPDATE: AllahPundit has video.

Thailand Bombings

Agam, who happens to live right in Bangkok, has a front row seat to what has been going on over there. He has a number of excellent links up as well with even more details. There is quite a lot of confusion at the moment and nobody is sure who is to blame for all this. But some really severe casualties were averted when celebrations were canceled and people sent home.

Citizen journalism, folks. You have a corespondent in Bangkok you can rely on for up to the minute news.

Otters On Offense

The otter brigades of the Animal Uprising™ have gone on the offense in Britain. Despite the anthropomorphizing that many humans indulge in, otters are not cute and playful. They are actually stone cold assassins of the wild and they are stripping Britain of fish.

Cute furry faces, a comical natural inquisitiveness and lead roles in literature have assured the European river otter a place as one of Britain’s favourite creatures.

Having come close to disappearing from this country in the 1970s they have clawed their way back on to the riverbank, even being found recently in cities such as Leeds and London.

But now their resurgence has brought them back into conflict with man. Having seen hundreds of thousands of pounds’ worth of prize fish gobbled up by otters, anglers are demanding that stocks of specimen fish, the heavyweights of each sport fish species, should be protected.

Anglers can spend weeks or months staking out a lake in the hope of catching an individual fish, such as a 30lb (14kg) carp, only to find that an otter has beaten them to it.

Clubs spend years and many thousands of pounds building up stocks of fish to catch but the fisheries are proving irresistible to the otters. The Specialist Anglers’ Alliance (SAA) says that otters have destroyed entire populations of large fish in some fisheries and have devastated stocks in hundreds more.

All that furry cuteness is part of their act. The reality is that they are willing to kill other animals to move the animal's larger agenda forward. Sort of the Joseph Stalins of the animal kingdom.

A Very Cheesy New Year

The Washington Post has an interesting little feature article about American entrepreneurship in action. A Maryland couple who have done rather well by making cheese. Their product is in demand in high-end cheese shops in Washington, DC and New York City. And they are working on expanding their business.

Now she laughs at the memory as she watches her husband milk several of the couple's 100 Jersey and Holstein cows. To her right is what they hope will become a functioning creamery early next year; Holly now drives to Pennsylvania twice a month to make her unpasteurized cow's milk cheese with the help of an Amish cheesemaker.

Behind her is the garage where she once hand-milked Rainey, her first dairy cow, a Jersey whose face is plastered on virtually every piece of Chapel's cheese. Outside the garage is a van that shuttles the Fosters' four kids around Talbot County on Maryland's Eastern Shore and that also brings back about 500 pounds of cheese after every 200-mile round-trip journey to Pennsylvania. The license plate reads "Cheeses."

Which all seems rather amusing to two unlikely cheesemakers. Holly, 37, was born on the Eastern Shore but had never handled a cow before she met Eric in 1988; the first time she was surrounded by cows, she froze in terror. Eric, 36, grew up on his father's dairy farm, trains racehorses for a living and has spent much of his life around animals, but he, well . . .

"I hated cheese," he says. "Kind of a crazy world, isn't it?"

It's a nice little story. Which, of course, brings us to another article from another source that provides a cautionary note. The Telegraph reports on the latest nanny state progress being made in Britain. It seems that cheese has been labeled as junk food with the start of the New Year. No, really.

New advertising rules that will officially label cheese as "junk food" were condemned yesterday by the dairy industry as unfair, misleading and counter-productive.

Under regulations coming into force this month, broadcasters will be banned from advertising cheese during children's television programmes or in shows with a large proportion of child viewers, such as The Simpsons and Hollyoaks.

The ban is part of a government drive to crack down on junk food adverts on television, which is designed to reduce the exposure of children to foods high in fat, salt and sugar.

It follows evidence that TV commercials have an indirect impact on children's eating behaviour and are contributing to the obesity epidemic.

It isn't just cheese, either. There are a few other foods that have been caught by the ban:

Marmite, Flora Lite, half-fat cheddar cheese, Dairylea triangles, bran flakes, camembert, sugar-coated puffed wheat, instant hot oat cereal, Jaffa cakes, reduced calorie mayonnaise, multi-grain hoop cereal, half-fat creme fraiche, takeaway chicken nuggets, potato waffles, Greek yoghurt (sheep), ham, sausages, bacon rashers, low-fat spreads, peanuts, cashew nuts, pistachio nuts, peanut butter, raisins, sultanas, currants, low-fat potato crisps, olive oil, butter, pizza, hamburgers, tomato ketchup, chocolate, brown sauce, cola, lemonade.

Note that a lot of the products listed are actually promoted as healthy in this country. For now. While Britain is currently ahead in the Nanny State Sweepstakes®, New York City is trying hard to narrow the gap. So my advice to Holly and Eric Foster is to enjoy your success while you can. The food police are closing in.

Ban Ki Moon Takes Over At UN

Ban Ki Moon officially took over the helm of the United Nations with the start of the New Year. He faces a long list of problems left over from Kofi Annan's tenure in the position.

In a speech after taking his oath of office Dec. 14, Ban said he will work to build "a more peaceful, more prosperous and more just world for succeeding generations."

His first priority, he said, will be to restore trust in the United Nations, whose reputation has been battered by the oil-for-food scandal in Iraq, corruption in the U.N.'s purchasing operations and sexual abuse by U.N. peacekeepers.

"I will seek to act as a harmonizer and bridge-builder," Ban said. "And I hope to become known … as a secretary-general who is accessible, hardworking, and prepared to listen attentively."

Ban officially became secretary-general at the stroke of midnight, but no official ceremony was scheduled.

Ban has a lot of cleanup to accomplish. Annan's corrupt, yet inefficient, mismanagement of the UN will take a lot to unravel. The UN could be a forces for good in the world, but only if very serious reforms are undertaken. It remains to be seen if the necessary steps can be taken to fix what is wrong there. At this point, odds are not good that enough can actually be done. Ban has a tough row to hoe.

Somali Islamists Run Walk Briskly Away - Again

The islamists who just the other day told the entire world - with a straight face - that they would never run from their enemies have once again departed. This time it is not at all apparent where they are briskly walking to. They were briskly walking too fast to track. But on the way out of town, they left the civilians in Kismayo a little parting gift. They shot and killed at least two of them.

MOGADISHU (AFP) - Islamist fighters have abandoned their last stronghold of Kismayo in southern Somalia after Ethiopian and Somali government troops advanced towards the city, but vowed to fight on.

"Kismayo is already in the hands of the government. The Islamists have run away … the airport and the seaport are free. They are still some mopping up operations," Somali Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi told AFP in Mogadishu on Monday.

He said the toll "is not available yet but there are no big casualties".

But witnesses said that two people were killed when the retreating Islamist fighters opened fire at angry residents.

"The Islamists were so angry at the people who were shouting 'we don't need you, we need the government' … they opened fire and killed the two," said Leileila Sheikh Adam, a resident of the town seized by the Islamists in September.

She added that the town was very tense, with local clan militia having looted the headquarters of the Islamic courts and taken weapons and ammunition.

The loss of Kismayo, caps a major turn of fortune for the Islamists, who last year took control of the capital Mogadishu and much of the country and were closing in on the weak transitional government's last stronghold at Baidoa.

The press should look on the bright side here. Sure, the islamists didn't live up the the PR the media helped distribute. Absolutely, the media generated image of the invincible warriors turned out to be media special effects. Sure, the reporting coming out of the area is now all highly suspect. Of course, the media looks absurd in all this. But at least the islamists are getting their exercise.

We managed to obtain a photograph showing the spirited defense the islamist militias are offering against the advancing Ethiopians and Somali government forces.

Look, the shutter speed only goes so high. It was the best we could do.

UPDATE: Others: Secular Blasphemy, Power Line, Sister Toldjah, Gun Toting Liberal, The Moderate Voice, Prairie Pundit, A Blog For All, Op For, Hot Air, Reformed Chicks Blabbing, Mindflame, Captain’s Quarters,  Bits Blog,