Adventures in Onionism

"Phasing out fossil fuel subsidies 'could provide half of global carbon target'" http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/jan/19/fossil-fuel-subsidies-carbon-target "Dirty Money The astonishing new data showing that simply eliminating inefficient fossil fuel subsidies could achieve half the world's carbon reduction goals." http://www.slate.com/articles/business/moneybox/2012/01/fossil_fuel_subsidies_and_global_warming_we_could_cut_the_climate_change_problem_in_half_simply_by_abolishing_inefficient_fossil_fuel_subsidies_.html Hmmm...Well, now that I've actually read more than the headlines, this is less exciting/aggravating than when I thought it was all due to US tax breaks for Exxon instead of consumption subsidies in Saudi Arabia, Russia, and Iran. But seriously, Exxon should still have to pay taxes in the US.

Yosemite HD from Project Yosemite on Vimeo . I heart California.

A nice music video by Alex Ebert (nom de guerre Edward Sharpe): Let's Win! from Alexander on Vimeo . [h/t AA] Also, An article by Tim about how the climate justice movement can succeed, with which I agree. Liberals need longer knives.

you can find these in Kenya.

I could do the circle thing all day long. I'm experimenting with QuickTime's built-in save-for-web function. Given my limited bandwidth and the compression that happens on facebook and youtube regardless, what's the best setting? Do these videos load, and if so, how grainy are they? UPDATE: I guess Blogger doesn't recognize .m4v videos when included as attachments in e-mails to post, so I have to do this via the web interface.

The spacing on the job website may be atrocious, but the job will not be. Tell your Stata-programming whiz-kid do-gooder recent college grad friends. http://www.poverty-action.org/getinvolved/jobs/Africa/IPAKenya100587

These guys paddled around Ellesmere island. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/18/sports/arctic-adventure-a-1500-mile-trip-by-sea-kayak.html Sounds pretty cool, but it's still not as awesome as Jennifer Pharr Davis (a woman, if that wasn't obvious) setting the overall Appalachian Trail speed record, and doing it hiking, not running. So click here and vote for her for NatGeo's Adventurer of the Year. The 18th is the last day to vote. http://adventure.nationalgeographic.com/adventure/adventurers-of-the-year/2012/

Greetings from Kakamega, the capital of Kenya's Western province and my new home. On the Kisumu road, south of the prison, the Salvation Army, then the cell tower, go west on the dirt road. Take the third right, then the first left, and my house is the first one on the left.  In the moments when I haven't been cleaning and analyzing pilot data to determine who gets a chlorine dispenser, trying to improve the quality of the fence to keep the dogs inside, reading old New Yorkers , struggling to get anything out of Don DeLillo's Underworld , or vegging out to Seasons 1-4 of Breaking Bad , I've been thinking: "Do I like it here in Kenya?" Yes and no. I've been thinking about this because I just got back here after a month in the US and Switzerland--shoot, I never told you about the trip to Switzerland--because interesting and complicated work and career possibilities appeared (and disappeared?), and because I've got a buddy who lives in Uganda who comp...

Same scale. Where do you think I like running more?

Good stuff. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/11/dining/a-vegetarians-struggle-for-sustenance-in-the-midwest.html and http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/01/10/were-eating-less-meat-why/ You've probably noticed a lot of html-ugly links, or simply URL's, on my blog in the past months. Blame slow Kenyan Internet speeds. It takes a lot less bandwidth to paste URL's into gmail and mail it to a secret address that automatically posts to my blog (but can't handle any html coding to make it pretty, as far as I know) than to go the blogger page and post the normal way. Apologies. I'm getting settled in Kakamega. I haven't found a decent restaurant yet (read: someplace that adds tomatoes and onions to beans instead of making them with nothing but water and salt), but the fence is at least fixed. For the last week Mack and George have been able to crawl under the fence, so they followed me to work. George liked it because he hung out by the chain-link office fence with...

From a trip to Kibera, a large slum in Nairobi, last month.

Last night on the way home from dinner in flip-flops with beer and not much food in my belly (the restaurant was a failure) I saw a snake in the road a few feet from me. It charged us and some Maasai warriors who happened to be right behind me started throwing rocks and their traditional short club/staff at it, then chopped it to bits with their machete. One of the fastest, most aggressive, and deadly snakes in the world. Good times. And JS thinks my blog has jumped the shark.

Picked up my bike in Busia, but it had a puncture near the valve stem so I have to buy a new tube. Hope to be on the road soon.

I did a little exploring of Kakamega today. At first I was disappointed--it really seemed like more of the same. It's a bigger town than Busia but it seemed like there was no improved quality to any of the shops or roads or whatnot, just an increased number. Then I made it to the big grocery store Nakumatt, and my attitude improved once I reached their liquor section. No bourbon but decent scotch and a better selection of beer. Just a couple imports but the Nairobi-brewed Sierra amber, blonde, and porter that are supposed to be ok. Also, produce! Broccoli, cauliflower, zucchini, cucumbers, pears, apples, and even cherries. I also scored soy milk, which I'll be eating with my swiss granola tomorrow morning before I get a ride with the new taxi driver I met today to Busia. I need to go there for a stupid work errand but mostly to pick up my motorcycle. M & K are getting back tomorrow, so the house will be more inhabited and I won't be the only one to deal with the landlor...

And now, here you are, photos from Switzerland. I'll tell more of a story in a later post, but it's 2 AM and I've got a headache, so I'm going to bed. https://picasaweb.google.com/111307055417777636167/Switzerland

Before I post pics from Switzerland, I wanted to add one more photo from my trip to see Gorillas. Also, Mac users: thoughts on Picasa vs. iPhoto for photo file management? I've always been an iPhoto man myself, but only by default.

After 30 days on the road, I've now arrived "home" in Kakamega. After nights in Busia, Nairobi, Philadelphia, Oakland, Santa Cruz, Oakland, Riverside, Santa Monica, Geneva, Lausanne, Zermatt, Lauterbrunnen, Geneva, and Nairobi, I'm ready to stop moving for a bit. The Switzerland trip was awesome, and I'll post photos soon, but I should probably stop comparing bits of life there (public transit, mountain views, quality of hotel breakfasts, taxi drivers accosting you at transit stations) to their counterparts in Kenya before I get depressed. I'd also like to congratulate Delta Airlines for royally screwing up plane tickets not even on their airline (they were on KLM); they'll be hearing from me about it. I should get to work, there's a lot to do on the project before the pilot study interventions gets delivered in a couple weeks. I also need to head back to Busia this weekend and pick up my dogs and my motorcycle. For a quick bit of hiking joy, watch thi...