All cob, no kernel

Madagascar…

Shopkeeper: Three dry seasons. People come begging for food.

Farmer: Corn never had a chance again.

Shopkeeper: Good Lord, your whole crop failed?

Farmer: Most cobs had zero seeds. This cob produced only ONE.

_________

Voice-over

A country of 28 million people. Well, an island really, 4^th biggest. Some deny climate change but whatever, is this a taste of things to come elsewhere?

Phasing in a Reduced Carbon Footprint

Tesla Cybertruck

Balancing economics with going green…
Joe: Why do you want an electric vehicle?
Leon: To reduce global warming, to clean up the environment.
Joe: Very laudable. We all would. What’s stopping you?
Leon: I have an investment in a couple of vehicles which still run fine and whose value hasn’t been written off.
Joe: So you’re trying to phase yourself out of fossil fuels and into more environmentally friendly transport?
Leon: While watching the costs, yes. Technology is improving and prices are falling…So the plan is to have sold all my fossil fuel vehicles by the end of 2022 and be all electric by 2023.
Joe: Sounds like a downsized model of government policy.
__________
Voice-over
There is also the question of where the electricity comes from. If the electricity is generated from hydropower, that’s renewable. Good. Or solar panels on the roof. Also good.

Dr Strangetrump

The triumph of ignorance…

.

I have hair, TOO!

George: How are you coping after the barbarians stormed the fort?

.

Bill: Testing alternative realities. Went to a movie festival.

.

George: Some insight into saner societies?

.

Bill: That, yes. But there were also re-mastered versions of classics. Dr Strangetrump, sorry, Dr Strangelove. I watched that. Suddenly, it seemed very contemporary.

.

George: In political, social, and economic arenas, paraphrasing John Neumann, can we expect mutually assured self-destruction?

.

Bill: Looks like it. Brace yourself. His policies, his personality, his loopiness will land us all in big trouble.

____________

Voice-over

Embarrassing for America that half their voters cannot understand either governance or global issues. As The Economist points out this week, expect further healthcare hardship, tax cuts for the rich subsidized by the poor, more racial and ethnic unrest, trade wars further impoverishing poor Americans, global recession, military cuts destabilizing Europe and Asia. It is the poor who voted this man in who will suffer most.

And global warming a hoax? With a narcissistic, thin-skinned, undisciplined conman pushing conspiracies like that, those who voted for Trump could see even fewer jobs in the US to apply for. Poor America. Poor world.

...

Bear out of hibernation

Jake, an acquaintance of Boris and Leonid, has been killed in a bear attack. In January.

...

Boris: He was just taking a two-day holiday!

Leonid: We know that much. And that he was killed by bear. What is puzzling is how he came to be where he was, in a forest, and what a bear was doing out of hibernation in January.

Boris: According to the lodge owner, Jake goes skiing the first day. Then he goes back in the evening and says, “I’m getting too old for all this downhill speed. And these skifields are not very ecologically friendly. They cut down the trees and run those lifts. Isn’t there a gentler winter sport?” And the lodge-owner says, “I’m sixty, like you. Let me suggest an eco-friendly activity. Snowshoeing.”

Leonid: And that’s what he was doing when the bear jumped him?

Boris: Right. So he sets off snowshoeing through the forest on the second day. The winter is warmer than usual and a bear comes out of hibernation. But this is January. Never been seen before. The bear is hungry and jumps him.

Leonid: Bears run fast, even through snow. And Jake couldn’t run away on snowshoes.

Boris: Double punch. He's trying to do his bit to reduce levels of CO2 and gets caught by one of the results of global warming.

_______

Voiceover

Irony, in this case, signifies the incongruity of actions and results. Jake was trying to avoid non-green activities. What he was struggling to put right set off a chain of events which was his undoing. We feel for the victim but this lends a satisfying symmetry to the story’s causal chain.

...

Kamishibai remix

Atsuko borrows some techniques of kamishibai for an audition.

Oliver: Why is she moving back and forth?

Ned: Well, first she speaks one part and then she speaks the other.

Oliver: She’s telling a story?

Ned: Through dialogue, yes.

Oliver: And pictures too.

Ned: It almost looks like she has done a remix, putting together a ventriloquist act with kamishibai.

Oliver: Kamishibai?

Ned: A story told using pictures and a frame.

Oliver: Refreshing change from the gravity of Gore, but she could use a little coaching on voices and maybe a couple more pictures.

Atsuko's performance here>