The pond has long thought of curating a season about films starring cats.
Not kids' cats' films, but films where cats can interact with adults and show their dramatic mettle. Just two examples of many. There's Robert Altman's The Long Goodbye, in which the loss of engaging cat with a discerning palate is sufficient reason for shooting a two-timing, double dealing friend.
And perhaps even better, the Coen brothers' Inside Llewyn Davis, in which the cat has a leading role. The injured look of pain and betrayal when abandoned by the wayward folkie is matched by the later shot of the tragic cat limping into a dark forest, alone and lost in a world of existential cruelty ...
Say what? This blog is supposed to be about reptiles, and anyway the pond doesn't much like cats, and we should get back to the reptiles? Oh if we must then, we must, but it's a pretty pass when cats are more appealing than reptiles.
But what a reptile feast there is this day. So many that the pond had to divide them by subject matter and level of stupidity into two divisions.
The first division, which has nothing to do with quality - a meaningless concept in the reptile world - concerned themselves with climate science, and first out of the blocks was the reformed, recovering feminist, the Oreo, well known for her expertise as a leading reptile climate scientists (mebbe feminism not so much).
Of course there's not an existential climate threat. Extensive field research by the Oreo, which involved a trip to at least two supermarkets, prove that science is best conducted by polling ... followed by a succulent snack ...
Ah the old 1.2% lie, stupid and meaningless, and not including exporting coal figures, and as pathetic as other figures deployed by the reptiles, back in the day when the reptiles could indulge their love of coal and offer up undiluted climate science denialism, as opposed to the studied hypocrisy the Oreo offers - a bit like pretending an inferior cat food stuffed deceptively into a tin is worthy of a discerning cat's attention.
It's the usual cant and ploy for doing nothing, or as little as possible, because you really don't accept the implications of the science, you just want to do a SloMo and keep shoveling that coal and Oreo shit.
But at least it becomes clearer why the pond would be better off scribbling about cats in movies than indulging the relentless stupidity of an Oreo ...
Better yet, the Caterist was also on a climate theme today...
Astonishing really. The pond was reminded of a piece by Aaron Patrick in the AFR way back on 17th July 2017, under the header More than half of federal MPs 'don't trust' climate science: think tank. It ended this way:
Should we have one? Or should we forget past stupidities and now pretend that it's a matter worth discussing, and we should have one ...?
Ah a benefit to a related Murdochian, and fond memories of the onion "climate change is crap" muncher ...
Are you not entertained? Would you like to head back to June 9, 2015 to ask the question Does climate science denialist Nick Cater know the difference between an ice sheet and sea ice?
No, you'd rather watch a movie starring cats. Or perhaps herding cats would be more amusing and droll than coping with the relentless stupidity of the Caterist?
Never mind, division two of the reptiles will return later in the day, and meanwhile there's just a short gobbet of Caterist gibberish pretending he cares and devising a policy for the day ...
What a complete doofus, and such a nakedly transparent money grubber to boot, and all the pond can offer in compensation is a ride with Rowe, with more Rowe here ...
Oh yeah,Cater: "The world has changed since the days of the Gillard government when Labor seemed to think the only way to wean greedy corporates off their addiction to greenhouse gases was to hit them between the eyes with a monstrous tax."
ReplyDeleteBut then we get some very rare honesty from a wingnut: "Peta Credlin admits the climate change policy under Julia Gillard's Labor government was never a carbon tax, but the Coalition used that label to stir up brutal retail politics. Credlin, the former chief of staff to Tony Abbott when he was prime minister and now a political commentator for Sky News, said the coalition made it a "carbon tax" and a fight about the hip pocket rather than the environment."
https://thewest.com.au/politics/carbon-tax-just-brutal-politics-credlin-ng-s-1674127
But then we have some more reptile lies: "The Coalition's Direct Action Plan under prime minister Tony Abbott and then environment minister Greg Hunt predicted that practical improvements to soil carbon would be the way we would address the carbon challenge in the future."
Yes ? Well: "Even when journalists do bother to remind voters that Abbott’s first budget was based on a barrage of lies and broken promises, they always make sure to compare these lies to Gillard’s Carbon Price ‘lie’."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-EyW7oFk6n8
Just another herpetarium day. I prefer cats myself, P.
Hi Dorothy,
ReplyDelete“Macdoch adopted rotational grazing, sophisticated stock management and a suite of other best-practice farming techniques to make its businesses more profitable and less prone to drought. The group has switched its focus from growing livestock to growing grass. Why? Because once you get the grass right you can stick a herd of cattle in the lush pasture and let nature do the rest.”
Cattle that then proceed to ferment the grass in their rumen and emit methane from both ends. Genius!
Methane that is 25 to 84 times as potent a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide (depending over which time period you measure it).
Cater skips over the process of creating biochar, in order to create this lush pasture, which requires heating organic material (brought from somewhere else presumably) in a low oxygen environment. Where does the power come from to carry out this heating? By burning carbon maybe?
Still it’s a good spruik for Macdoch which appears to be a private equity group set up with the windfall that Prudence Murdoch received when 21st Century Fox was sold to Disney.
Cater remains as always the faithful retainer to his old employer and his family.
DiddyWrote
Nicely done DW and much to the point. Even without the walking methane factories, grass is not ideal as a carbon store: it has too fast a rot and regrow cycle so it only builds up and retains a quite small amount of carbon. Now trees ... well heaps more retained carbon per acre and even dead trees retain their carbon for centuries.
DeleteBut of course, a warming planet transforms from forests and woods into almost treeless savanna.
Thanks for that enlightening and inspiring info DW and GB, and P of course for the pond!
DeleteThe Cattle Of MacDoch
They moo and graze, they chew and gaze
This herd of prime livestock
These fatted kine, these bovines fine
- Are the cattle of MacDoch
They feed on fields, whose profit yields
Are great, oh aye, and och!
On carbon soil, worth more than oil
- Stand the cattle of MacDoch
But cows ingest, and then digest
The grass upon their block
And from their arse, much gas is passed
- By the cattle of MacDoch
An Angus fart, is off the chart
A methane aftershock
Is what you’ll find, if you’re behind
- The cattle of MacDoch
From what I’ve read, it must be said
This scheme is just a crock
To fleece Bill Gates, and all his mates
- Invented by MacDoch!
On a roll, beautifully, Kez. But for the sake of fastidious accuracy, I must point out that it's cow belches that contribute the most methane:
Deletehttps://climate.nasa.gov/faq/33/which-is-a-bigger-methane-source-cow-belching-or-cow-flatulence/
Cheers GB, and thanks for the link. I found out some hard facts about bovine eructation and couldn’t help summarising.
DeleteWould you believe that cattle are
A source of greenhouse gases?
In fact they belch out nine times more
Than they blow out their asses!
And cows contribute ten percent
Of GHG emissions!
The rest are fumes from effluent
Discharged by politicians
I reckon we need kindergarten kiddies to learn these proportionalities. Just like when we recited our times tables each morning.
Finely summarised, Kez. And yes, I remember the daily ritual of "the times tables". I can still do some mental arithmetic because of that - though I also still wonder why it went up to the 12 times and didn't stop at 10; was the quantity of 'a dozen' all that universal back then ?
DeleteBut here's a trick I learned: how to multiply a pair if two-digit numbers, say multiply 16 by 17: take the 7 from 17 and add it to 16, giving 23 and then multiply that by the 10 left after taking the 7 from 17 to give 230. Then finally, take the 6 from 16 and the 7 from 17 and multiply them giving 42 and add that to the 230 giving 272. Hooray.
Now does anybody know anything more completely useless than that ?
Mind boggling maths GB. You lost me at "say multiply"!
DeleteWait till we get to square roots, Kez. Once upon a time - 35 to 40 years ago - I could calculate square roots by the 'long division' method. Now I've got a 3G mobile that cost me $9 in a Woolies supermarket that does it for me.
DeleteI just hope you don't bring up "imaginary numbers" GB. It's hard enough dealing with real ones.
DeleteYou're not wrong there, Kez; there's only one 'imaginary number': Sq root(-1). But when you get to the 'reals' - not counting the exponentials such as e and pi - then between any two real numbers, no matter how infinitesimally separated, there is an infinite set of real numbers.
DeleteOr, in short, all numbers are 'imaginary'. Quantities exist, eg there can be three eggs, but abstract numbers don't; there is no 'three'. And there are no circles in reality either, only in abstract mathematics.
And that's why mathematics is such fun: you make it all up as you go along.
Stone the crows GB - now you're telling real numbers are imaginary!
DeleteNow you've got it - cookin' on gas, Kez :-)
Delete"Cat who loves Harry Lime, The Third Man (1949)"
ReplyDeletehttps://www.pastemagazine.com/movies/movie-cats/100-most-iconic-cats-in-movies/#43-cat-who-loves-harry-lime-the-third-man
Neat, Joe - thanks.
DeleteNoted Joe, a splendid link and the pond almost burst into that old classic hit about the cats of Australia loving their Snappy Tom ...
DeleteWhilst the reptiles recycle old lies and talk about things that might happen others seem to be getting on with the job.
ReplyDeletehttps://reneweconomy.com.au/world-first-south-australia-achieves-100pct-solar-and-lowest-prices-in-australia/
Also interesting to reference Abbott and Hunt as authorities on anything. Now, if I wanted to deceive, delay or just plain wreck something I would defer to their expertise.