eekdog2005: CO2 is a pollutant in bizarro world.
granjuas: Put a plastic bag in your head and find out.

Doesn’t make scientific sense, but funny nonetheless.

A random memory: With Amos and Emily in Manhattan, a few weekends ago, I passed by Jon Stewart, who was walking along the sidewalk with his tiny son. They were hand in hand, speaking quietly.

Amos says he caught the following from Stewart, as they walked by: “Well, it’s kind of like saying God.”

And that was our Moment of Zen for the day

While typing randomly into Google:

There are a lot of Eric Nguyens in the world. Because of the relative newness of the Scandinavian first name to the Vietnamese, they tend to be of my generation or younger. There’s a comic book artist, a little-known actor, a fictional Eric Nguyen (in a commercial about identity theft, no less), and hordes of young’uns with the same name.

The one Eric Nguyen I’ve been most aware of, though, is an Oklahoma University climate researcher. Over the years, his storm-chasing photographs have gotten a good amount of media attention. One of his photos made it into the Smithsonian Magazine. Quite often, because I own ericnguyen.com, I would get emails from people taken with his images. They would mistake me for him and ask if they could use a particularly cool photo for a newspaper article, a school report, or a church newsletter. Sometimes, they would just send fan mail. I became quite familiar with his images, over the years, but I never contacted him. I just quietly directed his admirers to his website.

Today, I received an email intended for his family, expressing condolences. It seems that Eric Nguyen the Storm Chaser passed away, last month. His family has set up a scholarship fund in his name. He passed at a very, very early age (a year or so younger than me); I wish the very best for the people he leaves behind, and hope that they find peace with their terrible loss.

Because I received this little slice of Eric’s mail, over the years, I had an unspoken and yet oddly intimate connection to him. Today, I’m sad for him to disappear without having ever met him.

Big props to Senator Russ Feingold (D, Wisconsin) for speaking up on the Senate floor about his recent experiences in the D.R. Congo. An excerpt:

The Great Lakes region is at a critical moment in its history and we run the risk of contributing to events that could have far-reaching and long-term repercussions if we do not engage responsibly. With its vast resources, the DRC could be an anchor of stability in an area that has been plagued by violence and destructive activity for decades. The changing nature of global threats could render sub-Saharan Africa — and the Great Lakes region in particular– ripe for exploitation by any number of rogue actors. We can stop this before it begins if we work to ensure stability for the long term.

Mr. President, our National Security Strategy states “we will work with others for an African continent that lives in liberty, peace, and growing prosperity…we must help strengthen Africa’s fragile states and help build indigenous capability to secure porous borders…” I know the United States has many priorities that compete for attention and resources, but if done right, and as part of a comprehensive long-term strategy, a little can go a long way towards achieving these lofty goals in Africa. The United States should increase engagement in and expand assistance to the eastern DRC.

The senator stayed at our house in Goma while he was travelling there, though I missed him by a few days. Representative Jim McDermott (D, Washington) came through the following week. It was great to see Lyn and Jo Lusi (the founders of HEAL Africa) bring policy makers up to speed. They can pack a huge amount of insight into someone’s head over dinner, while making it seem like casual conversation.