Weird stuff on the Internet, part the bajillionth

So today I paid a visit, as one does, to the website of the Madhya Pradesh State Biodiversity Board, an organization charged with conserving the flora and fauna of Madhya Pradesh, a state in central India. The site has a panel that cycles through a series of nature montages; here's one of them:

Well, that image is certainly bio-diverse, I'll grant them that. That buzzard better watch out, though. He follows through and bites down on whatever that giant chipmunk is holding, and he's toast.

Seriously, though, if you're the graphic designer, how do you look at that juxtaposition and not say, "Hm, maybe we should rethink this?"

I also find it curious that an agency of a state with 75 million inhabitants has to go with a Yahoo account for its email address.

Saturday grab-bag

● I graduated in 1984 and don't have kids, so I need reminding from time to time how nuts our high stakes test-driven education-like system has become. 

● Everything you always wanted to know about the insanely dysfunctional fragmentation of municipal governance in Pennsylvania. I know, it's a real eye-glazer of a topic, but it matters, and the linked article is a great overview. (3,228 separate pension plans!)

● Noah Smith's comparison of the U.S. with Ming-dynasty China is way too glib (and I expect he knows it), but it's fun to read, and this paragraph hits the mark: 

We tell ourselves robotically that we have "the best health-care system in the world," when in fact it underperforms most other rich countries. We gape and gawk when we first travel to Japan or Switzerland and find that all the trains run perfectly on time — not to mention the fact that there are trains in the first place. We ignore our sky-high infrastructure costs and grumble about potholed roads, never pausing to wonder why West Europe and East Asia don't have these problems. We tell ourselves that we're the "land of the free," ignoring the fact that in Japan you can drink a beer in the park without getting arrested. We say that anyone in America can get rich, ignoring the fact that economic mobility is lower here than in almost any other rich country.

● Conversely, you can go too far with the America-as-dystopia trope. As far as I can tell, it's not Mad Max territory out there, but don't try telling that to Wayne LaPierre. Jeezus. 

Video of the week: I found out this week that my cousin, John Stuhldreher, is making a feature film. Very cool! Here's the preview - check it out. (Sports fans will like the name of his production company.)  

The Bakken and Eagle Ford shale plays are visible from space. Is the Marcellus?

If you get a chance, take a look a Phillip Longman's article in Washington Monthly, "Oops: The Texas Miracle That Isn't." Not only is it a good article, it features a great picture, namely this one:

What you're seeing is a section of a huge NASA composite satellite image of North America at night, taken in 2012, showing all the lights burning away in cities and towns. And not just cities and towns! That curved smattering south of San Antonio, as the labeling makes clear, is gas flaring from the Eagle Ford Shale.

The picture caught my attention, because I'd previously seen a similar one showing the Bakken Shale flaring, taken from the same NASA composite satellite image. Here's the image with both shales labeled:

What I'm curious to know is, can we see any flaring from the Marcellus Shale? There's certainly flaring going on, but I've never seen anyone identify it in satellite photos. Is it there?

In a draft version of this post, I initially said I couldn't see anything definitive. Maybe I'm seeing flaring, maybe I'm seeing rural towns. I just don't know. But then I took a closer look, and ... well, see for yourself:

I'm not going to swear I'm right about this, but there just shouldn't be that much light up there. I think those are gas wells. I think the Marcellus, like the Bakken and the Eagle Ford, is visible from space.

Do you agree? Here's a link to a high-res version of the NASA image all this is drawn from. Take a good look. Zoom in. Let me know if you think I'm right or not -- I'd genuinely like to know.

Addendum: And I have to say, I'm starting to wonder about those two lines of lights flanking Pittsburgh and extending southward ...

A pirate's wages

 Brian To / WENN

Left: Worth an estimated $350 million. Right: Broke.

Made the most of this past Sunday by catching not one but two Oscar contenders in the runup to the evening's telecast: American Hustle at the local second-run theater, then Captain Phillips on DVD.

I was more than a little disappointed that American Hustle didn't win anything – I don't care how strong the competition was, that movie was amazing – but it's Captain Phillips that I want to discuss, because it has such a curious behind-the-scenes story.

The movie depicts real-life events,* the 2009 capture by Somali pirates and eventual rescue of the title character, Capt. Richard Phillips, who was commanding the Maersk Alabama container ship. Many Americans remember the dramatic resolution of the crisis, when Navy SEAL snipers shot and killed three of the four pirates through the tiny windows of the lifeboat the Somalis had commandeered. A fourth hijacker, Abduwali Abdukhadir Muse, was captured and is serving a long sentence in U.S. prison.

Muse is played in the film by first-time actor Barkhad Abdi, who was so good in the role that he received (and deserved, in my opinion) an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor. According to an article in the New Yorker (paywalled), he was driving a limousine for his brother's company in Minneapolis when he answered a casting call seeking Somali nationals for the movie.

How much did Abdi earn for going toe-to-toe with one of the top-grossing actors in the world and giving as good as he got? $65,000.

The New Yorker:

After filming, he went back to work for his brother, selling mobile phones at his shop in a Somali-run mall in Cedar-Riverside ...  On the day of the premiere, he quit.

When Abdi is in Los Angeles to promote the film, he subsists on a per diem, good at the Beverly Hilton, where the studio likes to put him up. The town car is available only for official publicity events. His clothes are loaners. 

Given that Captain Phillips shows a fair bit of sympathy for its villains,** I find it curious that no one at the studio has thought of showing similar sympathy to Abdi and revisiting his financial deal. It would seem to be worth doing, even if only from a PR standpoint.

I couldn't find any firm figures on Hanks' fee for the movie, but it had to be a few million dollars. The movie as a whole cost $55 million. Abdi's $65,000 isn't even a rounding error.  

So you make a movie about a clash between the wealthy, powerful, technologically advanced (and white) First World and the desperately poor, hardscrabble (and black) Third World, and your production's pay scale basically mirrors the incredibly unjust situation you're depicting? It doesn't seem right. 

True, Hanks' value stems from his whole career, not one performance, and certainly it's his name on the marquee that sells tickets, not Abdi's. Or is it? It was at first, but once the movie opened, I have to think at least a few people recommended it to friends on the strength of this unknown Somalian's electric performance.

I know creative accounting is more Hollywood's thing than common decency is, but it would be nice if they made an exception this time around. 
__________

*As Hollywood movies go, it takes relatively few liberties with its source material, the real Capt. Phillips' memoir, but whether the memoir can be trusted fully is another matter.  

**Early on, it depicts the grinding poverty of their home village and the menace of the local warlords, and toward the end, Phillips and Muse discuss, non-judgmentally, the desperation that drove the latter's actions. 

Saturday grab-bag

● Marc Andreesen thinks the future of journalism can be "the best of all worlds." 

● Will Bunch thinks the future of journalism is rich guys with axes to grind. 

● Thomas Piketty via Matt Yglesias: On a net basis, the U.S. has no public debt. 

● Rebecca Goldstein argues that philosophy isn't going away (and shouldn't). 

Video of the week: My favorite act by a wide margin at Lancaster Roots & Blues was David Mayfield Parade, but none of the videos I can find convey anything of the intensity and brilliance of David's live show. Jeff Thomas' All Volunteer Army was darn good too, however, and with their videos I at least feel I'm watching the same band I saw at Tellus 360 on Saturday. So here they are: