Timberati » Books and Authors

A Regulated Forest – Part 2

Timberati — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 08:00:42 +0000

Why was old growth liquidated by timber companies?

Alston Chase’s 1995 book, In A Dark Wood, chronicles the clash over the last century between forest productionists and forest preservationists. He wrote about the strategy of removing decadent timber from timberlands, owned by timber companies or the government (though not from parks), to make way for young trees:

[Private companies] sought to convert old, uneven-aged stands to younger, even-aged ones as rapidly as possible, thus accepting reductions in timber volume in return for increasing long-term productivity. … Once the virgin timber was gone, they intended to follow sustained yield strategies, harvesting no more timber than could be cut in perpetuity, and doing so by cutting stands when their biological or economic growth rates had reached their zenith.

Following these strategies companies started to achieve their long-term objectives.

Growth rates ballooned, by 1970 exceeding cuts by more than thirty percent nationally. … In the Douglas fir region net growth per acre (i.e. total growth less mortality) increased from under 50 cubic feet per year in 1952 to over 70 in 1970, and to 110 in 1987.

This is corroborated by Brad Smith, et. al., in Forest Resources of the United States, 2002

Since the 1950s, timber growth has consistently exceeded harvest. Net timber growth exceeded harvest by 54 percent in 1976, 36 percent in 1986, and 33 percent in 2001. Net growth rates have not been increasing as rapidly as in the past, while harvest levels have remained relatively stable since 1986. Additional resource demands have been met by increased imports.

Remember Molly

Timberati — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 08:01:55 +0000

Image from Wikipedia

My goodness, has Molly Ivins really been gone for two years?

She knew stuff:

“I realize this is not breaking news, but we are looking at something exceptional in political history with this race. . . . The Internet is breaking open old power structures and set ways of doing things. Most campaign consultants have no idea what do with it or about it. How delightful.”

Prescient.

So beloveds, pour yourself a Lonestar, put your feet on the table, and remember the incomparable Molly Ivins. (BTW, she first appears on the video at 17 minutes).

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Damn, I miss her.

You might check “What Would Molly Think?” by Betsy Moon, a consultant and former assistant to Molly Ivins, on the Huffington Post.

The Medea Hypothesis

Timberati — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 19:48:36 +0000

So much for James Lovelock’s Gaia hypothesis–the idea that life sustains habitable conditions on earth. Enter The Medea Hypothesis. Peter Ward argues that most of Earth’s mass extinctions were caused life itself, and we have the hydrogen sulfide markers to prove it.

There’s an interesting TED Talk here (about 20 minutes).

Twilight Deconstructed

Timberati — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 08:01:18 +0000

Okay, we’ve had our joke and poked fun at Stephenie Myer’s Twilight .

Well, like the da Vinci Code, it works. Theories?

Eve Porinchak over at The Disco Mermaids deconstructs Twilight. It’s all about tapping emotions, isn’t it?

Parodies Loosed

Timberati — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 08:01:32 +0000

I found a link to a spoof of Twilight at Editorial Ass. It is hilarious.

I forget how I came across this spoof of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows with its mega-spoilers but it too is great (and teeming with text speak LOL).

I have found a site for Shakespeare parodies, such as Scots on the Rocks (a parody of Macbeth). And…this very lame Da Vinci Code parody (don’t say I didn’t warn you) with Jessica Alba, Jimmy Fallon, and Andy Dick.

Does anyone have any other spoofs/parodies of books, movies, literature, on the web? My Harry Splutter episodes do not count.