Mukluk Island. I was living up in Anchorage when they built that thing in the '80's thinking it was going to yield 1,000,000's of barrels and then it came up a dry hole.Now 25 years later BP, who built it, wants to use it to drill a really deep well, that'll go two miles down and then horizontally another six or eight miles. They're dodging the offshore drilling ban because they're siting the well on this island they built, an artificial mound they put in the Beaufort Sea. So the horizontal drilling plan, which is risky, is the really important part.
But I guess they have to keep trying. Got to justify that big investment. it cost them millions to build Mukluk and they got nothing from it so far.
It's really up to us. We need to refudiate our car-dependent culture and the morans who keep trying to sell it to us as the only way to live.
For me, the big test comes this winter. Will I still ride only the bike 5 days out of 7 when it's 40 degrees out and raining? Maybe I can learn to ride the (ugh) bus.
This afternoon I biked down to Greenwood to teach a yoga class. I didn't notice it while we were moving through the postures, but when we went into Savasana I was acutely aware of the horrible sound of angry vehicles just on the other side of the front windows as they roared along 85th Street, looking for pedestrians to crush and cyclists to maim and kill.
4 comments:
I didn't realize you were in Alaska. Myself, I am in Dutch.
I must admit that I am rooting for Shell for next year. Reneging on my social responsibilities, it's true. I'm just no fucking good, really, I guess, since I'm tired of suffering without effect. More's the pity, eh?
I got the library here to send for The Twilight of American Culture, which you recommended earlier, and have nearly finished it. Much of it is quite obvious, of course, to anyone that is paying the slightest attention, but there is some interesting viewpoints which I hadn't thought of.
I think the chapter on the monastic option, as he calls it is somewhat silly, though, and the first chapter almost made me put the book down. Chapter 3 (?) makes up, though. I'll likely reread it before I return it.
I'm not sure what library it came from, but I'd guess Anchorage. I generally make reviews of the books I read on small pieces of paper which I insert into the leaves of the book before I return them, so if you happen to see it on the shelves again someday... lol. This is my own tiny monastic option, I suppose.
BTW, and sorry for a second post but I don't suppose you'd mind, have you ever noticed how when it comes to the "New Arrivals" at the library, at least in Unalaska, when it comes to political commentary/political biography, it is easily 80% right-wing to 20% left-wing? I asked one of the librarians why they stock so much claptrap, and she just said that they get them automatically according to whatever is a bestseller (whatever that word actually means).
Since, against all evidence, I still cannot believe the American public is so stupid (especially that tiny fraction which buys books), I wonder if someone isn't cooking up numbers in order to get these atrocities stocked in libraries across the nation.
There could be non-conspiratory factors at work instead, though. I should read a few more just to see if they use pictures or simpler language. One amazing fact is that Going Rogue is NOT, thank God, on the Unalaska shelves, nor did I ever see it in the new books section. Then again, neither did I see Going Rouge.
DPirate, good to see you here.
You may have guessed that I'm no longer in Alaska. I left there in '87 and moved back to Seattle via Boston, Bakersfield, and Palm Springs.
When I first saw your handle I thought you might be connected in some way with the band I used to play with in SoCal, a buccaneering crew called There Be Pirates. But you're in Dutch Harbor, an isolated spot to be sure. I've never been, although I have been to Nome, Cordova, Talkeetna, and Wasilla
I found the monastic option as Berman calls it. to be not such a ridiculous idea, although his conception of it is a bit academic. I call it the "off the grid" option, and to my way of thinking there's not much monastic about it, since it's about re-imagining society and transforming social relationships. However, I am working on an illuminated manuscript of sorts.
I enjoy your comments; write here any time.
Did you ever think about posting your book reviews on a blog?
Dave B
I guessed it as soon as I posted that and then glanced at the main page where it says "Seattle", heheh, which I had seen and read before and chosen to forget, apparently.
Actually, I do have a blog, but there is nothing on it. Procrastination, laziness, and apathy have so far prevented me, but I've been thinking more and more about beginning.
This is the link, but I wouldn't bother having a look until September.
http://gunsorjesus.blogspot.com/
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