Wii Bowling

One thing I can count on doing when I go home for the holidays is getting into some Wii Bowling. Nearly anyone who's played a Wii knows this game. It has universal appeal to all age, skill, and experience levels. Plus the game comes with the system, so nearly everyone who owns a Wii owns this game. It used to be that my sister had a Wii that made it over to my mom and dad's place for the holidays, but now I've discovered that they have their own. They love this game.

Today I found this video that makes new use of the Wii Bowling by chopping up screenshots and reassembling them to remake a scene from the Big Lebowski. Enjoy!

warning! strong language

SOF - Bill McKibben

Yesterday I caught this show on the radio. It's an interview with Bill McKibben. He's an author, activist and most recently the head of 350.org. This is an agency that is "dedicated to building a movement to unite the world around solutions to the climate crisis--the solutions that science and justice demand." The 350 refers to aiming for atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations of 350ppm.

The radio piece is not heavily focused on faith but touches on the spirit of environmental activism as it relates to humility, and what realignments the movement and society could benefit from. I am probably messing that up so listen for yourself.

Humility

It's a important characteristic to have and one that comes to mind when you think of our lives on the scale of earth and climate. I think it's a good reason to advocate for changes, or rather less (climate) change. In the same vein, this frightening and prophetic advertisement from the ironically named Humble Oil company found in a 1962 issue Life magazine made me think of it.

COP15 - Google Earth Outreach Showcase

Yesterday the COP15 talks were kicked off in Copenhagen, Denmark. I took a break from writing papers to follow some links on some of the many sites devoting some time and space to this huge conference. [banner from Grist]

One of the coolest things that I found was a series of tours, demonstrated on Youtube here. It's also a bit funny because you can hear about climate change from Ted Danson. From there you can download some of the demonstrations you watch on Youtube for real interaction within Google Earth, including full IPCC climate scenarios. It's so cool because it easily combines modeled changes with satellite data that portrays information about land use, population and land cover. You can add and remove layers and scroll through time too (not sure how much satellite imagery will change with time). It also puts you directly in contact (with hyperlinks) with organizations and documents that back up or expand on the data. This eventually took me to their Earth Outreach page. They have a number of tools available to help non-profits visualize problems and projects using Google Earth. Below is one that I found pretty cool.


Now I'm thinking about how I can use this in my class next semester. More to follow on this and COP15.