travel – Page 18 – Andrew Spittle

February 6, 2009

Protecting Wild Utah

The New Republic’s Energy and Environment blog has an article today about Ken Salazar, the new interior secretary, and his effort to repeal one of the last-minute Bush administration laws. In the closing months of the Bush administration they passed a bill that would open up large tracts of Bureau of Land Management land in Utah. The problem is that Salazar has simply stalled the opening of these lands for drilling, which is currently a legal practice. From the article:

Unfortunately, there’s an underlying problem that still needs fixing. In offering the leases for sale in December, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) was simply acting in accordance with the new resource-management plans for its lands in Utah. These plans, which the Bush administration rushed to complete before the end of last October, leave about 80 percent of the BLM’s 11 million acres in Utah open to energy development. If the BLM continues to manage its Utah lands according to these guidelines, which are supposed to last for 20 years, then this week’s environmental victory will only be a temporary one. Conservation groups are challenging the management plans in court, and their lawsuits may well be successful. But the Obama administration needs to start drafting replacement plans that take into consideration the sensitive nature of Utah’s red-rock country by putting more of it off-limits to drilling.

I would love to see the Obama administration expand federal protection through not only Utah but much of the other semi-protected federal lands in other states. Traveling through Southern Utah during my Freshman year here at Whitman was simply amazing and truly created a new sense of environmentalism in me. I only wish that the lands stay pristine so that others can have the same experience that I was fortunate enough to have.

Link via Utah Drilling Stopped. But For How Long? – Environment and Energy .

February 4, 2009

A look into Indian slums

With the recent popularity of Slumdog Millionaire there has been a lot of attention going toward what the realistic conditions on the ground in Indian slums are. Foreign Policy has a great photo slideshow up of some photos and information about just what the conditions in this slums are. Definitely worth checking out if you’re interested in photo-journalism.

Read the article and see the slideshow at Foreign Policy.

February 3, 2009

The end of a street theatre

New York City is known for the interesting characters that one encounters on the streets. In an article posted today on the New York Times one of these fixtures has come to an end. The article is about Joe Ades and is a fascinating read about a person who seems to have lived life in a way that just simply made him happy. From the article:

His was a particular kind of street theater in a city that delights in in-your-face characters who are, and are not, what they seem. For he was the sidewalk pitchman with the Upper East Side apartment. The sidewalk pitchman who was a regular at expensive East Side restaurants, where no one believed his answer to the “So what do you do?” question: “I sell potato peelers on the street.” Mr. Ades (pronounced AH-dess) died on Sunday at 75, said his daughter, Ruth Ades Laurent of Manhattan. She said he never talked about how many peelers he sold in a year, or how many carrots he had sliced up during demonstrations. She said he stashed his inventory in what had been the maid’s room of the apartment.

Anyway, the article is definitely worth a read and can be read in its entirety here.

February 2, 2009

way to light

Found this on Flick this evening when I really should have been doing homework, but oh well. I love images like this that create texture through the trees and their leaves. The contrast between the dark wood and bark and the light greenery is just fantastic. Enjoy.

February 1, 2009

I’ve heard enough of the way is the final

I really like the lines and shadows of this photo. Looks like a staircase I would enjoy walking up. It also reminds me in a way of the famous stairway in the Vatican museums that I saw this summer. Click the photo to be taken to the Flickr page.