#70) “Patience and Humor”
September 21st, 2010
That was what 67-year-old Maine lobster fisherman Stevie Robbins told us he learned from his father during our radio interview two weeks ago. My 86-year-old mother heard him say that and has been repeating it to me ever since. Clearly it resonated with her years of knowledge and experience.
Stevie is going to be the star of the show tomorrow night here at the University of Maine’s Collins Art Center. During that interview, he also told us about one time when he said to his father, “Pa, my head hurts when I shake it. What should I do?” His father replied, “Don’t shake it.”
That’s Downeast logic for you.
#69) Who You Gonna Call: The Climate World MUST Learn from the Evolution Wars (a climate NCSE is needed)
September 16th, 2010
EFFECTIVE LEADERSHIP. It’s something the evolution science world has been given from Dr. Eugenie Scott, Director of the National Center for Science Education. It’s something the climate science world could use more of.
#68) A NIGHT TO REMEMBER: You should try to make it to Orono, Maine for the night of September, 22 for our tribute to the lobster fishermen!
September 13th, 2010
The ducks (and lobsters) are lining up for the big “Salt of the Earth” tribute screening at University of Maine’s Collins Art Center on Wednesday, September 22. If you live anywhere close to Orono you really should make the trek to the campus for the show. It’s going to be a lot of fun.
On Friday we did an hour on the radio for WERU’s Talk of the Town show. The two lobster fishermen brothers, Brian and Stevie Robbins were in the studio in Blue Hill, while my buddy Ed Leydecker (who played a pivotal role in making the film happen — he’s also the sound man who asks the question of the poker players at the end of “Flock of Dodos”) and I joined in via phone. It was amazing hearing the voice of Stevie Robbins, now 67, live for the first time in 19 years after having listened to his voice in the film for so many years.
There’s going to be live music, including some surprise performers, plenty of discussion and a whole lot of good times. Hope to see you there!
YOU CAN LISTEN TO OUR HOUR ON WERU RADIO HERE.
#67) Emptied Ocean, Phone Blabbing, the Muffy Moose Show, and Time for a Breather
September 3rd, 2010
I did a guest blog post yesterday on Joe Romm’s blog, Climate Progress, about the awesome Opinion paper in Nature from my friends Jennifer Jacquet (former co-blogger), Jeremy Jackson, Paul Dayton and Daniel Pauly. What an all-star line up for a single paper. It’s a GREAT paper, unless you work for the Marine Stewardship Council and are now fearing for your job because of it.
Also, this just in — a few weeks ago I took part in a conference call about global warming with the folks at The Nature Conservancy which they transcribed and posted (it starts on page 8 in their Science Chronicles publication). Interestingly they chose as their climate scientist the feisty Dr. Judy Curry.
And lastly, I’m up to my neck in pulling together over 50 old black and white photos from the decade 1937-1947 that my crazy mother, Muffy Moose, has unearthed in preparation for the talk she is going to give next weekend when we’re in Wichita. She has so many photos of her with different boyfriends during the war years that I’m thinking maybe it’s time for me to get a DNA test to make sure my father really is my father.
A few years ago, when she starred in my movie, “Flock of Dodos,” she had fun telling everyone, “It took me 83 years to become a movie star!” Now she can add to that — it took her 86 years to become a public speaker — this is going to be the first public presentation of her life!
Das Benshi shall be on hiatus for a couple weeks, probably resurfacing on or around September 15. Happy Labor Day!
#66) “Never Again” Moments: the CDC vs. the Climate Science Community (anthrax vs. Climategate)
August 29th, 2010
Catastrophic events often bring about change. For example, Hurricane Katrina in 2005 caused FEMA to clean up their act. The evidence of this was on display two years later when the catastrophic San Diego wildfires hit. FEMA did a flawless job responding, desperately trying to show they had gone through a “Never Again” moment with the mess they made out of Katrina.
#65) Off to Visit the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) in Atlanta
August 26th, 2010
WHO YOU GONNA CALL? The Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta
Today I’m spending what promises to be an absolutely fascinating day at the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta. The folks in Public Affairs apparently read my book and thought to themselves, “Hmmm …’don’t be such a scientist’ … who do we know that might benefit from such a message?” (hint: most research scientists) This is the same thing we went through last spring at NASA Goddard Flight Center. Basically wherever you find research scientists you’ll find communications folks dealing with the always-challenging interface between science and the public.
#64) THIS IS HOW WE DO IT: The 6th Annual Scripps Summer Student Films are the Best Yet!
August 23rd, 2010
There is cause for celebration! We have evidence of “learning behavior” — both with the graduate students at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, and more importantly, with the faculty (namely me!). We’re getting better at this stuff.
Last week was the 6th year in a row that we have run the intensive 3 day videomaking workshop for the students in the 12 week orientation course that all the new graduate students in the Center for Marine Biodiversity and Conservation at Scripps Institution of Oceanography must take in their first summer. What started as an experiment in the summer of 2005 has become an integral part of the course, with the students putting a great deal of thought and effort into the projects.
This year, more than any previous year, we saw a lot more attention and detail paid to the actual structure of the stories told. All of the filmmakers (with the exception of the Old Spice film, which is unusual) were able to say very clearly, “My film is a story about …” and actually tell a good story with a clear beginning, middle, and end.
This morning a major environmentalist sent me this new PSA from Heal the Bay and asked my opinion. It’s a 4 minute film which is brilliantly executed, BUT … who’s it going to play to?
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“POLITE CONVERSATIONS PRODUCE POLITE RESULTS” – that’s a little rule we learned from our friends at Deloitte this past spring. And it’s true. This is a polite PSA about plastic bags that will produce polite results. Which is great for the painfully-polite PBS crowd.
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#62) LEMMINGS VS. LEADERSHIP: What’s the Future of Climate in America?
August 16th, 2010
There seems to be a palpable pause in the great American climate struggle this month. The major climate legislation collapsed at the same time that the world has erupted in an apparent climate spasm from the heat waves of Russia, to the floods of Pakistan, to the glacier calving off Greenland. It’s a strange and eery political calm in the U.S. during which the only thing clear is that the climate forces, at least temporarily, have been rebuffed.
#61) Damn. Wes Skiles, the Incredible Cave Diver, Died
August 11th, 2010
WES SKILES — he produced the most amazing movies of cave diving and was the best Conga Line dancer I’ve ever seen.
WHY THIS HIT SO HARD
One night in 2002 I drove out to Hermosa Beach to meet legendary cave diver Wes Skiles at a bar to talk about our newly created Shifting Baselines project. I hadn’t seen him since an insane night in Chicago a decade earlier (details on that in a minute). I walked up to him, he smiled, and revealed a mouth full of horribly crooked teeth — so bad that a bolt of shock ran through me and I tried my best to not show any visual reaction. I hadn’t remembered him having such a mess for a mouth. It was very awkward. Poor guy.
We talked for a full minute about what we had been up to, with him spraying saliva everywhere until he finally burst into hysterics and took the fake teeth thing out of his mouth. What an asshole. What a brilliant and hilarious asshole. And what a night we had with him in Chicago in June of 1992 in what turned out to be one of the most AND least memorable (thanks to the alcohol) nights of my life.