NASA’s top climate scientists explains why he referred to the comments of NASA administrator Michael Griffin as “ignorant and arrogant”. Sounds reasonable to me.
Via Eli Rabett and Michael Tobis
[gigs]
JUNE
6th – Spindickle at the Grace Emily.
8th – Satan’s Cheerleaders at the Jade. Looks like they’re on first, so get there early.
8th – Machine Translations play at the Gov supporting Bob Evans and Farryl Purkiss.
8th – Young & the Restless and All Made of Rubies at Rocket.
8th – DJ Shadow at HQ.
9th – Brunatex at the Wheatsheaf for the Birdlantern cd launch.
10th – No Through Road (solo), Birth Glow, All Made of Rubies, Hit The Jackpot, Antony of the Future (+ more?) at the Prince Albert.
10th – Grey Daturas at the Crown & Anchor.
11th – DJ Shadow, Kool Keith and others at the We Love … Sounds festival at Adelaide Shores.
14th – Taught By Animals at the Cranchor.
15th – Beasts of Bourbon at the Gov.
15th – Darren Hanlon at the Jade Monkey.
16th – Brunatex at Electric Light.
29th – No Through Road, Antony of the Future, Fire! Santa Rosa! Fire, and Fake Lake at Rocket.
30th – All Made of Rubies and Moments (ACT) at the Prince Albert.
JULY
6th – Cosmic Psychos and the Celibate Rifles at Jive.
12th – Hit the Jackpot with Quebec at the Exeter.
13th – Dinosaur Jr at the Gov.
14th – Macromantics at Rocket with Birth Glow.
AUGUST
4th – The Shins at Thebarton Theatre.
9th – Mountains in the Sky are playing with Gotye at the Gov.
21st – Bob Dylan at the Entertainment Centre.
Rumours: The Cannanes (according to their own website), Battles (in that they don’t rule it out in their interview in dB) and The Dead C (which I possibly just made up).
On the Stereo
Tanakh – Dieu Deuil cd (Alien8)
The Mile End Ladies String Auxiliary – From Cells of Roughest Air 10″ (Bangor)
Machine Translations – Bad Shapes cd (Spunk)
Smog – A River Ain’t Too Much to Love cd (Spunk)
Van Dyke Parks – Song Cycle cd (Warner Bros)
Sufjan Stevens – Enjoy Your Rabbit cd (Asthmatic Kitty / New Jerusalem)
Autechre – Amber cd (Warp)
Subtle – For Hero: For Fool cd (Lex / Astralwerks)
The Wedding Present – The Complete Peel Sessions 6cd (Castle)
Guided By Voices – Hardcore UFOs 5cd+dvd (Matador)
More Recommended Reading
Just catching up on reading through my links on my day off, there’s a few things I’d like to recommend:
- Phil at Spinopsys has posted an interesting video about the high cost of free parking.
- Tim Lambert has been exposing the lies about DDT for ages, but his recent posts on the matter have been particularly good as he follows the money to find out where the “Rachel Carson is responsible for the deaths of millions of Africans” claim so beloved of anti-environmentalists came from.
- John Quiggin has written an excellent review of Clive Hamilton’s new book. The review serves as a concise history of the Howard government’s approach to climate change. Via Blogocracy.
- Nexus 6 finds that the Oz are very carefully targeting their advertising.
- Mark Diesendorf will be in Adelaide speaking about “Greenhouse Solutions with Sustainable Energy” this Thursday.
- Greens MLC Mark Parnell wants the SA Government to stop BHP’s free ride.
- The Denialism bloggers have a couple of great posts about cranks, first there is the how to guide , and then a case study – someone who will be familiar to readers of this blog, Alexander Cockburn. Also, you may have missed this link in an update to an old post, so here it is again: the Cockburn vs Monbiot debate.
That’s it for now, but I’ll get around to writing something myself some time soon.
Recommended Reading
I’ve been out of action lately, but I thought I’d throw in a couple of links to give you something good to read.
Firstly, Ken at the Road to Surfdom has written the definitive guide to workchoices in two posts – part 1 and part 2.
Secondly I was astounded to hear that the ABC is going to show The Great Global Warming Swindle. It is being pushed as showing a diversity of opinion, whereas it is propaganda which has been shown to be wrong. This troubles me since being screened on the ABC could lend it credibility which it does not deserve. It essentially peddles a conspiracy theory – that the world’s climatologists are perpetrating an enormous hoax. Some are framing the protests against it as censorship – but this is not a matter simply of opposing political views – this is a program pushing false claims about science.Then again, the ABC did put the show “Psychic Detectives” in their science slot over summer, so perhaps being on the ABC doesn’t lend the credibility on matters of science that it once did and I shouldn’t be concerned. Another concern however is the allegation that the program is being screened due to pressure from the board.
Anyway, one of my favourite parts of the controversy over this show was that the filmmaker’s response to one scientist who dared to question the “facts” in the program was to write in an email “You’re a big daft cock”.
I wanted to write more about this but haven’t had a chance, I may still do so, but inthe meantime you can check out Tim Lambert’s comments at Deltoid and follow the links there as well. Also George Monbiot’s article in the SMH is excellent.
[gigs]
Fans of 80’s Australian punk and/or SBS’s The World Game will be pleased to hear that the Celibate Rifles are touring in July together with the Cosmic Psychos.
Meanwhile June looks to have a lot of activity from Adelaide bands, so if you’re an Adelaidean who isn’t up with the latest local music then get out there and check some out.
MAY
20th – Taught By Animals at the Grace Emily.
25th – Spindickle at the Exeter.
26th – DJ Food, now seems to be at Rocket. It seems that these days DJ Food is just Strictly Kev, but he’ll be joined by frequent collaborator DK. Tickets $15 on the door.
26th – The Mares at Electric Light.
JUNE
1st – Art of Fighting and Subaudible Hum at Jive.
1st – Straight to Video at the Prince Albert.
2nd – Hit the Jackpot at FAD.
3rd – Little Ice Age and the Sea Thieves at the Jade Monkey.
6th – Spindickle at the Exeter Grace Emily.
8th – Machine Translations play at the Gov supporting Bob Evans and Farryl Purkiss.
8th – Young & the Restless and All Made of Rubies at Rocket.
9th – Brunatex at the Wheatsheaf
10th – No Through Road (solo), Birth Glow, All Made of Rubies, Hit the Jackpot, Antony of the Future (+ more?) at the Prince Albert
11th – DJ Shadow, Kool Keith and others at the We Love … Sounds festival at Adelaide Shores.
15th – Beasts of Bourbon at the Gov.
15th – Darren Hanlon at the Jade Monkey.
16th – Brunatex at Electric Light.
29th – No Through Road, Antony of the Future at Rocket.
JULY
6th – Cosmic Psychos and the Celibate Rifles at Jive.
12th – Hit the Jackpot with Quebec at the Exeter.
13th – Dinosaur Jr at the Gov.
14th – Macromantics at Rocket.
AUGUST
4th – The Shins at Thebarton Theatre.
On the Stereo
Joanna Newsom and the Ys Street Band – E.P. cdep (Drag City)
Times New Viking – Dig Yourself cd (Siltbreeze)
Various – Messthetics #100: Messthetics Greatest Hits cd (Hyped to Death)
Little Ice Age – Belong to You cds (no label)
Ed Kuepper – Rooms of the Magnificent LP (Hot)
Flanger – Templates 2LP (Ntone)
Pole – Steingarten cd (~scape)
DJ Food & DK – Now, Listen Again cd (Ninja Tune)
Amon Tobin – Foley Room cd (Ninja Tune)
Dälek – Negro, Necro, Nekros cd (Gern Blandsten)
New Scientist on Climate Change
New Scientist have an excellent feature on climate change here (via The Killfile)
Bike Haters
Last night I returned from a gig at Urtext to where I’d locked my bike up just down Grenfell St a little at the bus stop. I noticed as I approached that it was a bit out of position as if someone had tried to push it over, but as I got up close I saw that someone had smashed up my helmet, so that a number of pieces had either completely come off, or were only just hanging on, and the strap no longer could thread through properly. I’m not sure exactly what they’d done but my best guess is that they’d kicked it against the post that my bike was locked to. I was thankful that the bike itself hadn’t been damaged, but left wondering at the anti-bike mentality behind this sort of thing. Sure it might have just been a random act of vandalism but my experience is that there are quite a few bike haters out there – and it goes beyond the usual call of “get a car” or “bike faggot” from passing bogans. Only last weekend I was riding down Greenhill Rd on Friday night when someone in a car passing at high speed through something at me which hit me in the back. I didn’t see what it was but it hit me pretty hard. I tried to get their license number but they sped off down a side street.
I’ve just been rewatching the excellent late 80’s series The Secret Life of Machines and the conclusion to the two part episode on the car is quite interesting. Presenter Tim Hunkin talks about the way the car has attained something of a religious status in our society – so perhaps the origins of bike hate are akin to religious intolerance. Of course some anti-cyclist stuff is just your garden variety road rage, but this was not the case in either of the instances described above.
By the way, Adelaide cyclists should be warned that this isn’t the first trouble I’ve had on Grenfell St, a couple of years ago I had my bike locked up just near the intersection with Twin St while I was at the Jade Monkey, and my seat was stolen. So I will be very wary about locking up on Grenfell in the future.
[gigs] Silvermine Tapes play next week
The Silvermine Tapes only play about once a year, and when they do it is always great. I’m still not completely sure about this one – there is nothing on their myspace page and when I talked to one of the members recently he said not to expect them to play any time soon … but hopefully (I’ve had confirmation that this is definitely happening) they are supporting a band called the Girls and Adam at Electric Light next Thursday. The Girls and Adam are based in Melbourne as far as I can tell, but consists of former Adelaide people including a couple of members of Bergerac.
This isn’t the only news of interest this week, after missing Adelaide on their last tour, the reunited Dinosaur Jr are touring again after the release of their new album and will play at the Gov on the 13th of July.
Also, don’t forget that a couple of the best bands in Adelaide right now are playing this weekend, Little Ice Age tonight and No Through Road tomorrow night. One more thing for this week is that Spindickle is playing at Sarah’s, a vegetarian cafe in Leigh St on Tuesday afternoon, supporting David M Lewis (formerly of the Bedridden).
MAY
11th – Little Ice Age at the Prince Albert, with Aviator Lane. LIA might have a new single for sale at the gig.
12th – No Through Road with Leader Cheetah and Line Honours at Urtext.
15th – Spindickle at Sarah’s Cafe, supporting David M Lewis. Starts at 5pm and is free.
17th – Silvermine Tapes supporting Girls and Adam at Electric Light.
18th – Taught by Animals at the Cranchor.
19th – Soursob Bob is recording a live album at the Wheatsheaf.
19th – Wolf & Cub at Adelaide Uni.
20th – Taught By Animals at the Grace Emily.
25th – Spindickle at the Exeter.
26th – DJ Food, now seems to be at Rocket. It seems that these days DJ Food is just Strictly Kev, but he’ll be joined by frequent collaborator DK. Tickets $15 on the door.
JUNE
1st – Art of Fighting and Subaudible Hum at Jive.
1st – Straight to Video at the Prince Albert.
2nd – Hit the Jackpot at FAD.
3rd – Little Ice Age at the Jade Monkey.
6th – Spindickle at the Exeter.
9th – Brunatex at the Wheatsheaf
11th – DJ Shadow, Kool Keith and others at the We Love … Sounds festival at Adelaide Shores.
15th – Beasts of Bourbon at the Gov.
15th – Darren Hanlon at the Jade Monkey.
16th – Brunatex at Electric Light.
29th – No Through Road, Antony of the Future at Rocket.
JULY
12th – Hit the Jackpot with Quebec at the Exeter.
13th – Dinosaur Jr at the Gov.
AUGUST
4th – The Shins at Thebarton Theatre.
On the Stereo
Love of Diagrams – s/t cdep (Unstable Ape)
Sea Scouts – Beacon of Hope cd (Unstable Ape)
Ninetynine – The Process cd (Unstable Ape)
Ninetynine – Worlds of Space, Worlds of Population, Worlds of Robots cd (Unstable Ape)
Ninetynine – 767 cd (Patsy)
Ninetynine – 180° cd (Patsy)
Susanna and the Magical Orchestra – Melody Mountain cd (Rune Grammofon)
Mouse on Mars – Varchaz cd (Ipecac)
Dälek – Negro, Necro, Nekros cd (Gern Blandsten)
New Kingdom – Paradise Don’t Come Cheap cd (Gee Street)
Around the Climate Blogs
An occasional trawl through my blogroll and beyond. Look out for similar posts on other topics soon.
At Deltoid Tim Lambert shows us some hilariously silly comments on global warming from John Laws. For example “it was much warmer in the Middle Ages for God’s sake and we didn’t have any motor cars then to my knowledge and we hadn’t even invented the wheel. ..”.
Nexus 6 has been away for a bit, but is back in action this week with a look at the worst climate science paper ever. I had thought that perhaps that title would have gone to the paper discussed here at Real Climate, which shows that the previously wildly erratic atmospheric carbon dioxide levels stabilised exactly when we started accurately measuring them … but Nexus might have a point. Lets just declare the journal Energy and Environment to be the winner, since they published both papers after what must be a rigorous peer review process.
At Open Mind, Tamino is looking into what’s really going on with glaciers (and I’m afraid the news insn’t good).
Meanwhile Eli Rabbett has been reminding everyone of the story of Al Gore’s mentor Roger Revelle and the disgraceful tale of how he was claimed by the GW denialists as one of their own
Finally there’s a new blog called Hot Topic, which looks at climate change from a New Zealand perpective.
[gigs] Prehistoric Sounds
Ed Kuepper, Chris Bailey and Ivor Hay are back together as The Saints! For one gig only though. And it’s in Brisbane. Full story at Mess + Noise (via Decomposing Trees). By the way Ed has a new album on the way soon too, hopefully with a tour to follow.
Other reunion news this week is that Dinosaur Jr have a new album, and according to the reviews it’s a good one. Also, the Reid brothers of Jesus & Mary Chain fame are back in action as well, playing on their sister’s album (Sister Vanilla). Haven’t heard enough about that one to say whether it’s worthwhile yet though.
On the local front we are spoilt for choice tomorrow night with Ninetynine at Producers and the Avant Gardeners at the PA. Since I saw the AG a couple of weeks ago but haven’t seen 99 for years I think I’ll be going with 99.
Also Karl from the AG (and numerous other Adelaide bands and record labels) is playing his first ever solo gig next week, on a bill with Jon Dale and Dan V. Should be a great night of local talent.
Look out for a couple of great gigs next week too. Love of Diagrams at Jive on Thursday and Little Ice Age at the PA on Friday. LoD are from Melbourne and have been getting a lot of attention thanks to a record deal with Matador. I’ve been keenly awaiting their return to Adelaide since well before any of that, I first got interested because of their connection with that great Tassie band Sea Scouts (I’m gonna keep namedropping them until they get the recognition they deserve), when I saw LoD a while back at the Jade they were tremendously good.
I saw LIA at FAD last Saturday … when I see them I feel like its Dunedin in the late 80’s (that’s a huge complement in case you don’t realise). I intend to see them again at every opportunity.
MAY
4th – Ninetynine at Producers or Electric Light or whatever it’s called.
4th – The Avant Gardeners with Antony of the Future at the Prince Albert.|
8th – Jon Dale, Daniel Varricchio and Karl Melvin at the Exeter.
10th – Love of Diagrams at Jive.
11th – Little Ice Age at the Prince Albert.
19th – Soursob Bob is recording a live album at the Wheatsheaf.
26th – DJ Food, now seems to be at Rocket. It seems that these days DJ Food is just Strictly Kev, but he’ll be joined by frequent collaborator DK.
JUNE
1st – Art of Fighting and Subaudible Hum at Jive.
9th – Brunatex at the Wheatsheaf
11th – DJ Shadow, Kool Keith and others at the We Love … Sounds festival at Adelaide Shores.
15th – Beasts of Bourbon at the Gov.
16th – Brunatex at Electric Light.
AUGUST
4th – The Shins at Thebarton Theatre.
On the Stereo
Various – Tropicália cd (Soul Jazz)
Miles Davis – Get Up With It 2cd (Columbia)
The Necks – Chemist cd (Fish of Milk)
Autechre – Untilted cd (Warp)
Skream – Skream! cd (Tempa)
The Clean – Anthology 2cd (Flying Nun)
Battles – EP C/B EP 2cd (Warp)
Grizzly Bear – Yellow House cd (Warp)
Swans – Various Failures 2cd (Young God)
Superchunk – Foolish cd (Fellaheen)