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don't miss it! björk and sigur rós team up for náttúra concert on june 28th, 2008 icelandic superstars björk and sigur rós will team up to perform a free concert in their hometown of reykjavik.
the náttúra concert is a bid to raise awareness of the destruction of iceland's natural landscape, and will be webcast live from from 7pm to 10pm gmt (3pm—6pm est) on nat geo music.
the náttúra concert will be an open-air event, held at the botanical garden on laugavegur, near the center of reykjavik, iceland. the country boasts the largest unspoilt wilderness left in europe, and náttúra is being organized as a response to the ongoing enviornmental degradation caused by iceland's increasingly invasive aluminium smelting activity. "too often battles being fought for nature turn into something negative and into mudslinging," björk said in a recent press statement. "we will not go that way, we are not saying that this and that is forbidden, we are rather asking 'what about all these other possibilities?' the 21st century is not going to be another oil century but rather a century where we need to recycle, think green and design both power plants and our surroundings in harmony with nature."
the náttúra concert will also spotlight the book dreamland: a self-help manual to a frightened nation by andri snær magnason. the book, a best-seller in iceland, is published in english next month by citizen press and has already won the icelandic literary award and the icelandic bookseller prize. both headlining artists have recently finished a series of touring commitments, with sigur rós releasing their brand new album 'með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust' on june 23 and björk following 2007's 'volta' with a huge worldwide tour.
Posted by Francisco J. Brenes at 8:37 am No comments: Labels: björk, concert, iceland, music, sigur rós


more radiohead!

this is such a nice cover! radiohead (well, jonny and thom) play portishead's "the rip". this song has been apparently done in soundchecks but hasn't made it to the final setlist. it's a very nice version. thank you, w.a.s.t.e. central! enjoy!

Find more videos like this on w.a.s.t.e. central

Posted by Francisco J. Brenes at 10:52 am No comments: Labels: music, portishead, radiohead


radiohead: super collider (new song, live in dublin)

esta canción no viene en el "in rainbows" y todo indica entonces que ya thom & co. están probando nuevos temas para un nuevo álbum... habrá que esperar a ver qué más se tiran en los siguientes conciertos, pero si por la víspera se saca el día, lo que viene va a estar demasiado bueno. disfruten!

Posted by Francisco J. Brenes at 6:49 pm No comments: Labels: music, radiohead

again: ethanol is not the answer!

(for the full article, go to blatant reality).

ethanol fuel is probably one of the worst things we could do from both an environmental and an economic standpoint.

the most common version is made from corn, one of the most important grains produced in the united states. now, having to process corn to create ethanol isn’t the problem because, as you well know, we have to refine crude oil to create gasoline and such. The problem comes when you look to see just how much energy it takes to create ethanol.

it can takes roughly 1.29 gallons of fossil fuel to produce just 1.0 gallon of corn-based ethanol fuel. now, when one of the main reasons to use biofuels is to decrease co2 emissions, this figure just makes the whole process seems outrageous.

one must also take into account another environmental impact caused by promoting biofuel production. according to basic economics, the more of some product that is demanded, the higher price that product fetches in the marketplace. with higher potential to make money, more suppliers will then enter into the market in order to supply that product.

what this means from an environmental standpoint is that farmers are going to have more incentive to plow under land to produce corn. this might be tracks of forest on their properties or just land that, at previous corn prices, wasn’t economically feasible to plow under. less forested land and natural habitats = less biodiversity and less co2 sequestration = very bad.

this whole corn ethanol business is very heavily subsidized. for example, in 2006, the ethanol business got $7.0 billion to produce just 4.9 billion gallons of ethanol . that comes out to being about $1.45 per gallon of ethanol. in my opinion, that is a completely outrageous amount of money for such an impractical solution to our energy needs.

more importantly, because of these subsidy, corn prices are kept at an artificially high level. a high price of any other commodity might not be too bad but since it is corn, the results can be an increase in almost all food prices. the reason for this is that the price of corn basically controls the price of every single staple we eat.

cereal? made from corn.
beef? chicken? pork? fed corn. (another reason to go vegetarian).
milk? produced by cows that have been fed corn.
cheese? yogurt? made from milk that was produced by cows that have been fed corn.
those little fruit cups? i guarantee that they are made with high fructose corn syrup.
Posted by Francisco J. Brenes at 6:18 pm No comments: Labels: environment, ethanol
 Francisco J. Brenes
 tracks you should listen to! fighting climate change!