Viscount and Chevalier Back in Town

The Viscount and the Chevalier are back in town after spending two weeks in Vermont, Maine, and other regions. Updates to come.

Tuesday Science Blogging

It seems that carbon levels are 38% higher today than they were any time in the last couple million years as a result of out industrial society's desire to burn fossil fuels as per a new article in Science.

Monday Florida Gay Rights History Blogging

In June of 2005, a Gay Pride Month display at the West Gate Regional Library upset the Hillsborough County Commission. They reacted by enacting this policy "Hillsborough County Government abstains from acknowledging, promoting, and participating in gay pride recognition and events." The library display was a small poster that listed books by gay authors including Tennessee Williams. The policy shocked the gay community and caused many gays to move to more gay-friendly Pinellas County across Tampa Bay. In addition, a boycott was enacted that hurt the local economy. Tampa is within Hillsborough County and the Mayor of that City, Pam Iorio, came out strongly against the resolution and made it clear that Tampa did not support Hillsborough's resolution. Nevertheless, gay pride events have moved largely to St. Petersburg in Pinellas County.

EPA Recognizes Global Warming

In April of this year, after a distinct 8-year silence on the issue, the EPA released a draft "Endangerment Finding" that details the associated threats to Americans from global warming and the release of greenhouse gases. This document is stunning in its shift from the pre-Obama rhetoric and lack of leadership on the issue. The document puts the six main greenhouse gases in one pollution category so that they can be regulated as a group. This is similar to the way that Europe looks at them. While the document does not reveal and regulatory approach at this time, it does provide a summary of the key issues and concerns in some detail. While there are elements that could be debated, the document overall provides a solid review. The finding came about after a Supreme Court Ruling in 2007 (Mass v. EPA) in which the court noted that the state had standing the sue for regulatory action due to the damages it received due to global warming.

Now we need some solid regulations. In addition, the Waxman-Markey bill should not be supported as it destroys elements of the Clean Air Act. It is too much to give up.

Passion Vine

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Originally uploaded by viscountx

The Viscount planted a nice passion flower vine in the front of his house last year to attract butterflies. It worked. Now the little caterpillars are all over the vine. Interestingly, they do not destroy the plant. They just eat some of the leaves before they go into cocoon stage.

The Viscount's Royal Hound

This is the Viscount's Royal Hound and Companion, El Gato Buddy inspecting the grounds.

Tuesday Science Blogging

The Viscount was thinking about climate change science and has noted that it is striking how many people still believe that accelerated human-induced climate change is false. The evidence is all around us. While some have recognized that there are areas in the world where cool temperatures seem to prevail for longer periods, the overall trend of planetary warming is such that the global temperature has risen approximately 1.4 degrees F in the last century. What is certainly obvious to the Viscount is that while there is a general warming trend, there is also greater climate variability. Temperatures fluctuate more, precipitation varies more, and storms and droughts are more severe. But what to do about all of this? There are really only four choices. First, we can require the use of less greenhouse gases. Second, we can tax or in some way economically make the use of greenhouse gases desirable (such as the whole cap and trade approach). Third, we can mitigate the impact of greenhouse gas production through carbon sequestration or storage projects. These are great ideas, but represent just a tiny fraction of the emissions produced. Finally, we can geoengineer a major project that would somehow transfer heat out of our atmosphere into space or within the earth.

Of course, we can also just dance while Rome burns. Humans quite regularly make poor individual choices on environmental issues that concern a large group of people. For evidence, one must read Jared Diamond's Collapse to ascertaing the full impact of poor human thinking on environmental issues.

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies

As alluded to in an earlier post, the Viscount is reading Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. The book is an updating of Miss Austen's book to include a relatively significant plot twist wherein zombies are present all over the place. The change is exceedingly amusing and the Viscount found himself actually laughing out loud over several passages, thereby breaking his normally staid and sedate countenance for which he is known. The story line is exactly the same as the original, except the five daughters have all been trained in the killing arts in China. This was all the poor family could afford as most of the leading families send their children to Japan. It is clear that this choice is marked with social stigma, although it is evident that Elizabeth and her sisters came back to England with much more talent in these areas than many of their friends. Instead of the girls showing off their prowess in social settings by playing the piano or singing, they do martial arts exercises. Some of these are quite deadly as their opponents can be killed. In one scene, Elizabeth ties her dress to her legs with a "modesty string" so her skirts to not fly in the air while she walks on her hands.

All of Austen is in this book and one is delighted by the subtleties of her text and prose. Yet, there are zombies. The zombies wreck havoc in everyone's lives including Mrs. Collins who has a bad go of it I am afraid in this retelling. The girls seem to be nearly always at battle even while trying to find husbands, and the husbands seem to be avoiding battle at all cost. This is a landscape of women warriors and modesty strings. Great fun!

Washington D.C. Pride

The Viscount and the Chevalier happened to wander into the D.C. Pride parade today unexpectedly as they worked their way across the country. They were both pleased to happen upon the leather bar float as their first view. Some unfortunately visaged individuals were filming elements of the parade and the Viscount is certain that the film will be showed at Baptist churches around the country. Nevertheless, he was so pleased with the overall countenance of the crowd. Such joy! Such friendship and love. The world is a bright place when there is light.

Friday Florida Gay Rights Blogging

This week the City of Miami voted to offer domestic partner benefits to employees of the City. The Viscount approves of this wonderful news. The State of Florida has a ban on domestic partner benefits for all state employees. Many gay state workers have fled the state workforce to take positions with organizations that are less homophobic. This news comes out after dismal reports that the Obama administration filled a hateful brief in support of the Defense of Marriage Act.

Thursday Science Blogging

There is some evidence that the Great Lakes were lower during the early expansion of humans across North America. Archaeologists have found traces of hunting blinds similar to those that can be seen in the Arctic today. This is not especially surprising since the general belief is that humans migrated in high numbers into North America from Asia across the land bridge that was exposed during the most recent ice age. The sea level was significantly lower and glaciers covered much of northern North America. It is clear that glaciers carved the basins in which the Great Lakes rest. The archaeological deposits under the lakes must have been deposited during a time prior to the filling of the basin with water yet at a period when ice was not within the basin where the deposits were found.

Bananas

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Originally uploaded by viscountx

The Viscount's bananas are doing quite well with all the rain we have been receiving. They are the raja puri variety. To date, they have produced one clump of bananas, but unfortunately, they rotted in the hot weather last year. This year, when the plant blooms, the Viscount will have to study how to protect the fruit. Sadly, the plants were damaged by the freezes over the latest winter and it took them some time to recover. This is the northern fringe of where they will thrive, so it is not unexpected that the plants froze back a bit.

Over the weekend the Viscount finished one of the Men's Knitting Retreat socks. Pictures to come soon.

On the reading front, he has been working his way through Barbara Walter's book, Audition. He is amazed by the number of individuals she knows and reflects how he used to watch her on the Today show when he was a young boy. While never really being a fan of her body of work, the Viscount is impressed by her accomplishments. The Viscount always found her interview style a bit smarmy. She seemed to comfortable with her interview subjects leading the Viscount to wonder what questions were unasked.

The Chevalier is busy working on another vinyl outfit for one of his clients. He seems to be on a vinyl phase.

Tuesday Florida Gay Rights History Blogging

The Viscount remembers when Anita Bryant began her campaign against homosexuality in Florida. He was a young boy living on an estate in the Midwest when Dade County tried to ban discrimination against homosexuals (the term in vogue at the time for gays). Of course the Viscount's readers understand that Dade County is Miami. The city is an interesting mix of people from all over Latin America and the Caribbean and a variety of American transplants, largely from the eastern seaboard cities of the northeastern United States. There is often a tension between the more conservative Latin population and the more liberal northeasterners. The city also has a strong fashion community and a vibrant gay district in Miami Beach.

Back in the late 1970's when this issue came forward, Anita Bryant led the campaign to fight the ordinance and to go after other gay rights issues in the stat such as adoption. Florida voters largely supported Bryant, leading to delayed gay rights in many portions of the state. Bryant's celebrity and outspoken nature gave considerable cover to many homophobes who were quite shocking in their hateful and dangerous rhetoric. The legacy of Bryant lives on in Florida where it is still illegal throughout the state for gays to adopt. While Dade County overturned the adoption ban recently, the extremely conservative state legislature has not reversed the adoption ban developed during the Bryant era.

Anita Bryant's career fizzled after she went public on her anti-gay stance. At the time, she was a spokeswoman for Florida orange juice. Her contract was not renewed in the midst of this controversy and she and her husband also divorced during this period. The divorce tarnished her reputation among conservative Christians.

Monday Garden Blogging

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Originally uploaded by viscountx

The Chevalier's fountain is always full this time of year given that it is raining almost every day. The jade plants and cacti that surround it are a nice contrast to the splashing water.

The Viscount Approves

of the Sex Pistols.

Science News

The Viscount noticed some interesting science news recently.  He found this article fascinating in its demonstration on the similarity of emotions and nerve functions between humans and other primates.  It turns out that apes laugh.  While one would imagine that this would be the case, it seems that a systematic study was recently completed to confirm this inference.  The Viscount has a strong interest in the emotional life of animals and is happy to learn that apes enjoy being tickled as much as he does.

In other news, there is more evidence for the link between land cover change and climate change.  This time the evidence comes from India where there is evidence that the development of widespread agriculture hundreds of years ago changed the monsoonal pattern.  The Viscount consistently rolls his eyes at climate change naysayers and refuses to be socially linked with such individuals.  There is ample evidence that the earth is constantly undergoing climate change from anthropogenic and natural causes.  There is no doubt that the changes on our planet in the last several decades accelerated this change.

Friday Florida Gay Rights History Blogging

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Originally uploaded by viscountx

The first openly gay Hillsborough County Commissioner, Kevin Beckner, was elected in 2008. Hillsborough County includes the cities of Tampa, Temple Terrace, and Plant City as well as rural agricultural and mining regions. Beckner defeated former professional wrestler and arch-conservative Brian Blair. Beckner, a certified financial planner, ran a largely positive campaign focused on a variety of issues including responsible growth and development, transportation, and environment.

Beckner was elected after years of anti-gay activities by the County Commission including notorious library display removals, homophobic rhetoric by individual commissioners, and promotion of anti-gay laws. Prior to Beckner's election, there was a gay exodus out of the county to neighboring St. Petersburg. The Commission's anti-gay activities were in contrast to the more positive words and actions of the Mayor and City Council of the City of Tampa. Beckner's election changed the tone of the County Commission and indicated a moderation of the electorate in the region.

In gardening news, the Viscount's papaya tree is blooming after nearly dying in this winter's freeze. It will not be long before the Viscount will be able to share his green papaya salad recipe with readers of this modest blog.

Thursday Garden Blogging

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Originally uploaded by viscountx

The Viscount's caladiums have come up with the recent rains. He planted them several years ago after buying several bulbs at the Caladium Festival in Lake Placid, Florida. He encourages everyone to attend the festival if they can. It is a piece of Americana. The festival takes place in a small town on the northern fringe of the Everglades. Most of the caladiums in the world are grown here. There are tours of the caladium fields, lots of arts and crafts on the theme of caladiums, and plenty of good food. There is even a local caladium landscape tour.

The Viscount would like to congratulation the people of New Hampshire for doing the right thing.  In addition, he applauds the Senate for having hearings on the Uniting American Families Act and is anxious for congress to act quickly.

Knitting Update: Touch of Twist Sock

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Originally uploaded by viscountx

The Chevalier is modeling the completed Touch of Twist sock knitted from a pattern given out in the goodie bag at the Spring Men's Knitting Retreat. The Viscount found the recommended needle size too large (size 5) and he switched to a 2.5. He will probably bring it down to a 2 if he knits it again. He really likes the sock pattern. It is a tube sock, so there isn't any fiddling with any gusset or heal turn. The pattern is really fun and the sock is quite lovely. It knit up quite quickly using a soft alpaca yarn. The Viscount is in the midst of the gusset of the official men's knitting retreat sock.

The Viscount Approves

of several things today.  First of all there is this statement from the White House.  The Viscount is very pleased that the statement starts off with a recognition of the role of the revolutionary events associated with Stonewall.  Nevertheless, the Viscount politely reminds the President of the old adage that actions speak louder than words.  He encourages the President to grow a pair.  How many more service men will be fired?  How much longer before we have the same benefits as straight couples?  How much longer for the HIV travel and immigration ban?  Thus, the Viscount still approves of the President, but is concerned about the lack of action and evident real commitment on the issue under discussion.  The Viscount must note that the linked proclamation was not found on the White House Website, but Pam's House Blend.

Second, the Viscount approves of the Southern Exposure Seed Exchange.  He has planted the southern peas he ordered from them on his estate and they are coming up nicely.  He is concerned about his crop of zucchini.  He is afraid they may have the mosaic virus.  Nevertheless, the Viscount is delighted with the range and variety of seeds available from the company for growing in the southern climate.

The Viscount was thinking about evolution over the last several days and he was reminded of the importance of scientific education.  Therefore, he approves of this museum.  It has an extensive display of Cenozoic evolution found within the fossil assemblages that can be found in Florida.

Finally, the Viscount must close by approving of of Alexander McQueen's Fall Menswear Collection.  He particularly likes this look.  He looks forward to wearing the outfit while greeting visitors to his estate this fall.

Monday Garden Blogging

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Originally uploaded by viscountx

Over the weekend, the Viscount and the Chevalier did some yard cleanup. Along with lots of weeding, cleaning, and planting, they did some serious pruning of the bamboo stand that rests on one corner of the estate. Over the recent drought, many of the trunks dried up and died. The rains promoted lots of new growth and the old needed to be removed. They filled up 4 waste baskets full of dead bamboo. The lovely picture here shows some of the refuse they created. The grounds are not quite ready to exhibit to the public, but the Viscount is confident that he is making progress. To date, he and the Chevalier have not had tour buses show up on the paddock, but they know that it will only be days before the summer tourist season brings the throngs.

One of problems that is often a matter of great debate among the family is the whole pesky matter of Spanish moss. This air plant is a favorite of the Viscount. He enjoys how it drips from the live oaks on the estate and it creates a distinctly gothic mood in the environs. Yet, it is also a messy plant. When it is windy, beards of it blow off the trees and land on the lawn to create tufts of grey among the green. But it is also a native plant. It belongs in Florida and the Viscount is completely comfortable picking up the moss when it falls from the trees. However, some of the Chevalier's family find it particularly ugly. They have suggested that the Viscount get one of the grounds keepers to remove all of the moss from the trees. The Viscount compromised and he pulled the moss from the reachable areas, while leaving the moss to sway in the wind in the upper branches.