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The Archive

Dining by Dumpster
Friday, June 29, 2001

Joel Kalson, a Clintonville man who Dumpster-dives daily, sees his hobby as a plus -- the ultimate in recycling. "Stores dump millions of dollars worth of merchandise each year", he said. "It blows my mind the level at which they're putting stuff in the trash." Whatever Kalson can't use, he passes along to others. Or he sells it. Last year, he said, he made $15,000 from items he snagged from the trash. On one recent expedition, he pulled out four 12-packs of beer, 30 bouquets of flowers, a case of strawberries and a dozen roasted chickens that were still warm.

The amount of waste in our culture is bad enough, but the fact that so much stuff that could be used to help the less fortunate is just thoughtlessly tossed into the garbage defies logic and common sense.

We all see it every day.

We just choose not to notice it.

Thanks, Ribbit! :)

Survey finds backing for old-growth forests
Friday, June 29, 2001

A new public opinion poll indicates that three of every four people in Oregon and Washington want an end to the logging of old-growth trees in national forests, a conviction that holds true even in rural counties long dependent on logging and other resource industries. It also extends across political party lines, according to the poll scheduled for release today.

Meanwhile, the Bush administration stalls again.

Lumbering Along

According to the new report, the U.S. Forest Service lost $407 million from logging on public lands nationally in 1998, the most recent year for which data were available. The Willamette National Forest hemorrhaged more than any other, spending nearly $30 million more preparing timber sales than it got from selling them that year. Five of the nation's top 10 money losers were in Oregon, including the Mount Hood, Winema, Deschutes and Umpqua forests. Losses from the Oregon forests alone constituted nearly 25 percent of the total national forest system deficit.

James Johnston of the Eugene-based Cascadia Wildlands Project, finds it interesting that the Willamette, which still logs old growth, came in a loser while the Siuslaw, which cuts only second growth, came in a winner.

"The Siuslaw makes money because they manage tree farms," Johnston says. "The Willamette loses money because they'd rather strip-mine 500-year-old old growth than manage the thousands of acres of tree farms on the forest. -- They could practice innovative silvicultural techniques in second-growth stands like the Siuslaw (does), but they're fixated on old-growth clear-cutting."

So not only are timber corporations chopping down our national forests, but we're paying them to do it!

Forest Service Budget Reform Campaign

Anti-Environment Activists on the Attack Against RAN

Two rightwing activist groups are behind an orchestrated campaign against RAN. The "Center for the Defense of Free Enterprise," headed by anti-environmentalist for-hire Ron Arnold, and the "Frontiers of Freedom Institute," founded by retired Wyoming Senator Malcolm Wallop. Ron Arnold's attack website, ranamuck.org, contains much of the same information, including quotations, cited by Boise Cascade in a series of intimidating letters sent to environmental foundations. Already defensive, Arnold claims on his site that his attack of RAN "is not a question of stifling their free speech rights."

Ron Arnold is a well-known anti-environmental activist was named by People magazine as the "Number One Enemy of the Earth." Here are a few of the statements he has made to the media:

"We want to destroy environmentalists by taking away their money and their members" (New York Times, Dec 19, 1991)

"We are sick to death of environmentalism and so we will destroy it." (Boston Globe, Jan 13, 1992)

On June 13, Wallop organized a forum on "Eco-Terrorism and Extremism" whose sole purpose appears to have been to smear RAN by falsely linking it with groups associated with property destruction and arson. Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) and Rep. George Nethercutt (R-WA) spoke at the event.

These guys must be big on political suicide.

Thanks to Tidepool for the above links :)

The quake machine
Friday, June 29, 2001

If you can't predict the "big ones" or brace against them, then how about stopping them in the first place? De Rubeis is coordinating an international team of geologists who think they may have found a way to do just that. They want to gently ease the stress out of the Earth a little at a time-by skewering the ground with artificial lightning and triggering their own mini-quakes.

I don't think that this such a good idea, considering the possibly of cataclysmic consequences. Worse still, one wonders if this type of technology could be developed into the perfect weapon.

Temple Terrace won't hire smokers
Friday, June 29, 2001

If you smoke, don't bother applying for a job with the city of Temple Terrace. The city has adopted a policy banning the hiring of smokers. And if you light up, even at home, you could be fired.

``Basically, we're trying to establish a healthier work force, and with insurance rates skyrocketing, it's something we feel we need to do,'' said Woody Hubbard, director of human resources.

So, you can be fired for using a product that's legal for sale to adults. The scary part is that this is totally legal and is catching on in other cities.

I know that smoking tobacco has become politically incorrect, which is how employeers can get away with this without too much protest. Health care costs caused by alcohol, obesity and other factors are conveniently ignored, because the people writing the regulations know that they would be facing a class action lawsuit faster than you can say "billion dollar settlement".

Key West police chief has journalist critic arrested
Thursday, June 28, 2001

It's official.

Florida is the most fucked up state in the Union.

They have a long and glorious tradition of censorship.

Thanks to killyourtv.com for the original link :)

Popped Clutches I Have Known
Thursday, June 28, 2001

The stick is (mostly) dead.

Long live the wussification of the U.S.A.!

There are many reasons to favor sticks over automatics.

1. They get better gas mileage.

2. They're more responsive to driver input and give more control.

3. They don't decide for you what gear you should use.

4. Since they tie up both hands more of the time, stick drivers are less likely to engage in distracting and dangerous activities like adjusting the radio, gabbing on handheld cellphones, checking stock quotes on a laptop, eating greasy pork ribs, combing hair, putting on makeup, masturbating, etc. etc.

5. They're just plain more fun to drive!

The Unstoppable SUV

Gas guzzling wankermobiles still popular.

Its popularity says much about the conflicted psyches of baby-boom consumers. They created Earth Day and then went on to make a status symbol of gas-guzzling four-wheel-drive trucks. Ironically, more SUV owners claim to be environmentalists than do drivers of other types of vehicles. “SUVs are the classic mirror to look at the contradictions of baby boomers,” says Robert Thompson, a professor of pop culture at Syracuse University. Even automakers admit few buyers really need SUVs’ off-road ruggedness, since only 5 percent of them ever venture into the untamed wilderness.

Have I mentioned that baby boomers make me wanna puke?

Please nag your Senators to support the Automobile Fuel Economy Act of 2001 (S. 804). It's a small step in the right direction.

Newspaper: U.S.-Led Spy Net in Japan
Thursday, June 28, 2001

Has Echelon been spying on our own allies?

Here's a good layman's article on quantum cryptography, which should render Echelon and other systems like it completely useless.

Russia To Bring Space Shuttle Back From The Grave
Thursday, June 28, 2001

Former Soviet space shuttle back in business?

Encyclopedia Astronautica - Buran

Bush Kicks Off Fund-Raising Summer
Thursday, June 28, 2001

Democrats and Republicans up to the usual soft money pandering.

The Wednesday night dinner opened what party officials say will be a summer of fund raising by President Bush , first lady Laura Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney for Republican House and Senate candidates.

The invitation offered those contributing $25,000 and up ``the option to request a member of Congress and their guest to complete your table of 10.'' The biggest donors got a chance to mingle with President Bush and Cheney at a predinner reception.

The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee is inviting big donors to spend July 6-8 on the Massachusetts island of Nantucket dining and sailing with Daschle and more than a dozen other senators. Those giving $20,000 in federally regulated donations or $50,000 in unregulated ``soft money'' are invited.

Let the bidding war begin!

At Hill GOP Dinner, Tenderloin and Soft Money

A third co-chairman, James A. Anderson Jr., is vice president of government relations at the National Association of Wholesaler-Distributors, which has also spoken out against a patients' bill of rights, calling it too costly and too risky for employer-sponsored health plans.

"I've not seen one shred of evidence to suggest anybody I ever raised money from, for this or any other event, sought or received special treatment," Anderson said. "People participate based on where they see their allies to be."

Then why do they give money? Just for kicks?

I guess he must be a blind man.

Cheney Refuses Order for Energy Plan Secrets
Wednesday, June 27, 2001

Cheney's shadow government may get sued for failure to release information concerning secret meetings on national ernergy policy.

The law, GAO counsel Anthony Gamboa writes, authorizes the agency to "investigate all matters related to the receipt, disbursement, and use of public money."

"This broad grant of authority contains only one limitation: that the subject of the inquiry involve the use of public money," he continued. "It is beyond dispute that appropriated funds paid for the activities of the [Cheney task force] and thus that [its] activities are a matter related to the use of public money."

Bush Moving to Jump-Start Energy Plan

Bush gets desperate with his unpopular "drill first" plan.

House votes come as welcome surprise

Since Republicans have a 10-seat majority in the House, the votes stack up as clear early victories for environmentalists and spell trouble for the president's agenda. "There is growing degree of concern in Republican quarters that they are not going to walk the plank with Bush on the environment," Arthur said.

Norton remains firm on ANWR

Faith Gemmill, program coordinator for the Gwich'in Steering Committee, said she was glad Norton visited Arctic Village but said the secretary never seemed to have an open mind.

"I think industry's voice is more powerful than ours when it comes to Gale Norton," Gemmill said. "It was a courtesy visit."

"Our people don't have any alternative to our culture and way of life. Once it's gone, it's done," Gemmill said. "Gale Norton and the Bush administration should think about the past and what's been done to Native people and not make the same mistakes."

We know where she stands..

Thanks, Tidepool :)

New president, same game

Bush, Vice President Cheney and Republican congressional leaders are the stars of a $2,500-a-plate fundraising dinner that may gross as much as $20 million from lobbyists, corporations and fat-cat individuals wanting to bend government policy to their own agendas. That's nearly twice as much as the comparable event last year.

A similar bash a month ago brought in another $24 million, establishing Bush as Bill Clinton's equal in the wretched excess of political fundraising and perhaps the new champion. After 5 months in office, his approach looks remarkably similar to Clinton's loan of the Lincoln Bedroom and other favors, which Republicans so properly scorned.

Think Bush will support campaign finace reform?

Democrats vs. Hollywood
Tuesday, June 26, 2001

Hillary, Hillary, Hillary.

I want to like and support you, I really do!

My problems are:

A: You're a carpetbagger. That's a loophole that I don't support.

B: You insist on endorsing nonsense bills like this one.

You're only hurting yourself in the long run. I don't consider you "power mad", that's right wing gasbag rhetoric. However, if you claim to be a liberal, then fight for things that will make a real difference in the lives of the poor and downtrodden. Skip the censorship!

Thanks, Weblogging Considered Harmful :)

Ivory Coast Child Slavery
Tuesday, June 26, 2001

Enjoying that chocolate bar? Did you know that it very well might be a product of child slave labor?

Private rocket launch is 'suicidal'
Tuesday, June 26, 2001

Visionary or nut? You decide.

Somehow, I don't think I'd trust my life to a launch capsule made from an old cement mixer.

Serving the Guest: A Sufi Cookbook and Art Gallery
Tuesday, June 26, 2001

Food, philosophy and art, three of my faves!

Thanks, fluffius muppetus :)

'Dog child' rescued
Tuesday, June 26, 2001

In Chile, an 11-year-old boy who had been living wild with a pack of dogs has been rescued by authorities and taken to hospital.

Wolf children and the bifold mind

Snap! It's the conjoined crocodiles
Tuesday, June 26, 2001

"Chang and Eng" have two heads, eight legs.

The crocs were named after these gentlemen, who lived not too far from my home.

'New balls, please' for mice homes
Monday, June 25, 2001

Recycled tennis balls will be used to help endangered mice in Britain. Isn't that cute?

Brainy robot gets Arctic test-drive
Monday, June 25, 2001

Autonomous robot Hyperion will soon be tested in the Canadian Arctic.

Shadow Science
Monday, June 25, 2001

Good background article on the Kepler spacecraft, which will search for Earthlike planets (if NASA will fund it).

Kepler: A Search For Habitable Planets

High, Mostly Dry On Midwest Rivers
Monday, June 25, 2001

Federal flood mitigation protects the environment, saves lives and keeps taxpayers from having to bail out people who insist on living in flood prone areas. Uh, isn't it common sense not to build where major flooding occurs every few years?

Will funding continue? Probably not.

Bush Aims to Get Faith Initiative Back on Track
Monday, June 25, 2001

Bush continues to push DOA faith based initiative plan.

Rep. F. James Sensenbrenner Jr. (R-Wis.), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, which has jurisdiction over part of the bill, told Vice President Cheney recently that the administration would never achieve bipartisan support for the legislation in its original form. Sensenbrenner promptly received calls from Bush and Attorney General John D. Ashcroft seeking to satisfy his objections, administration sources said.

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

First Amendment, United States Constitution

Just thought I'd remind you in case you had forgotten.

REP America
Monday, June 25, 2001

Environmental policy should not be reduced to an "us vs. them" mentality if we are commited to prevailing against our current administration, who seems to take fiendish delight in turning out environment into a polluted wasteland.

Conservation is a great moral issue, for it involves the patriotic duty of ensuring the safety and continuance of the nation.

President Theodore Roosevelt

I do not intend that our natural resources shall be exploited by the few against the interests of the many.

President Theodore Roosevelt

One of the most serious challenges to human destiny in the last third of this century will be the growth of the population. Whether man's response to that challenge will be a cause for pride or for despair in the year 2000 will depend very much on what we do today. If we now begin our work in an appropriate manner, and if we continue to devote a considerable amount of attention and energy to this problem, then mankind will be able to surmount this challenge as it has surmounted so many during the long march of civilization.

When future generations evaluate the record of our time, one of the most important factors in their judgment will be the way in which we responded to population growth. Let us act in such a way that those who come after us -- even as they lift their eyes beyond earth's bounds -- can do so with pride in the planet on which they live, with gratitude to those who lived on it in the past, and with continuing confidence in its future.

President Richard M. Nixon

Ultimately, our objective should be to insure that the nation's environmental and resource protection activities are so organized as to maximize both the effective coordination of all and the effective functioning of each.

The Congress, the Administration and the public all share a profound commitment to the rescue of our natural environment, and the preservation of the Earth as a place both habitable by and hospitable to man. With its acceptance of the reorganization plans, the Congress will help us fulfill that commitment.

President Richard M. Nixon

Yeah, we all know that talk is cheap, but the Republican Party has done a lot for the environment in the past.

The far right wing that dominates the Republican party today certainly like to loudly proclaim their anti-environmental rhetoric, but it is unfair to stereotype them all based on the actions of various loudmouths. Republicans have been a part of solutions to environmental problems in the past and it is essential that they are so in the future. We're all in this together.

Nominee for Forest Service post has strong timber ties
Monday, June 25, 2001

Bush holds up his far right rabid anti-environmental agenda:

The appointment of Mark Rey as undersecretary of agriculture has heartened Pacific Northwest timber-industry officials, who hope to see an increase in logging on federal land, and alarmed environmentalists, who see this as one more sign of a Bush-administration effort to ease conservation rules on public land.

Rey's résumé includes 18 years working for the timber industry. He has spent the past six years working as a Republican aide to the U.S. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, where he has earned praise for his forestry knowledge, legislative skills and hard work.

He helped craft a controversial amendment - known as the salvage rider - that cleared the way for logging some old-growth stands in the Pacific Northwest.

They love to put the fox in the henhouse, don't they?

House Thwarts Bush's Anti-Environmental Agenda
Sunday, June 24, 2001

On Thursday, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Interior appropriations bill for fiscal year 2002 (HR 2217), including three pro-environment riders aimed at protecting public lands and waters from energy development.

One amendment would delay oil and gas leasing off the Florida coastline. The controversial leasing program has long been opposed by the state of Florida, including the current governor, President Bush's brother Jeb Bush.

A second rider would prevent energy development within the present boundaries of existing national monuments by precluding new leasing under the Mineral Leasing Act.

The third amendment would protect local communities from environmental threats from hardrock mining by preserving all parts of current mining regulations that keep companies from shifting costs to taxpayers, safeguard surface and groundwater resources, and maintain the government's authority to deny irresponsible mining proposals.

In a remarkable blow to another Bush administration initiative, the House also voted to reject an Interior Department proposal to hamstring citizen enforcement of the Endangered Species Act. The administration had introduced into the Interior budget a measure to bar U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service funding for any threatened or endangered species actions ordered by the courts in response to citizen lawsuits.

Let me again first point out that this was the Republican controlled House of Representatives that did this. I know I'm repeating myself, but it's like a beautiful dream.

Attack on tax status of environment group
Saturday, June 23, 2001

In a move that could hobble environmental protests, a conservative lobbying organization has petitioned the Internal Revenue Service to rescind nonprofit status for a San Francisco environmental group.

Environmentalists say a positive ruling by the IRS would have a chilling effect on nonprofit organizations that sometimes engage in lobbying or protests.

The unusual action by the Frontiers of Freedom Institute in Arlington, Va., against Rainforest Action Network (RAN) could represent a new strategy by conservative groups alarmed by recent large-scale protests against world trade and multinational corporations.

Corporate anti free speech lobbying is alive and well. I don't think that people will be fooled, but this is a important story to watch.

Thanks, Unknown News :)

Firm's Iraqi Deals Greater Than Cheney Has Said
Saturday, June 23, 2001

During last year's presidential campaign, Richard B. Cheney acknowledged that the oil-field supply corporation he headed, Halliburton Co., did business with Libya and Iran through foreign subsidiaries. But he insisted that he had imposed a "firm policy" against trading with Iraq.

"Iraq's different," he said.

According to oil industry executives and confidential United Nations records, however, Halliburton held stakes in two firms that signed contracts to sell more than $73 million in oil production equipment and spare parts to Iraq while Cheney was chairman and chief executive officer of the Dallas-based company.

Can we trust this guy if he's willing to subvert U.S. foreign policy in favor of big oil? The answer to that is a big fat "NO". Isn't it a more than a bit hypocritical and ironic that Cheney makes money off of one of those dangerous "rogue states" that Bush's "missile defence" is supposed to protect us from?

O’Neill Lays Out Radical Vision for Tax

One of the most important moves, he suggested, would be abolition of taxation on companies. Corporate income tax, the main form of tax on US businesses, accounts for 10 per cent of federal revenues and has a top rate of 35 per cent.

Among other controversial ideas, Mr O'Neill questioned the the guarantees the government provides for full public subsidy of senior citizens' health care and retirement programmes. "Able-bodied adults who have the ability to earn income have an obligation not to pass part of their own responsibility on to a broader population," he said.

This shouldn't be too surprising considering that O'Neill just made 95.5 million dollars on his massive conflict of interest with Alcoa, a corporation that he headed for thirteen years.

Thanks, Unknown News :)

Looking for God at Berkeley
Saturday, June 23, 2001

. . . Macosko's interpretation makes a radical break from the overwhelming majority of his colleagues: He believes that the work going on inside those bacteria isn't just amazingly complex -- it's so incredibly complex that it couldn't conceivably have formed through evolution. The only reasonable explanation, he says, is that these systems and their processes were deliberately created by an "intelligent designer".

Also see: Babel fish, cross-reference God, Nonexistence of.

I am amazed by the very desperate human longing to reconcile the twin demons of religion and science. Religion has given us more wars than all other factors put together and a sea of blood from the innocent. Science has poisoned our seas, darkened our skies, reduced the human to a mere rat in a maze and led us to the brink of annihilation. People think they are at odds, but as a force for destruction, both are two sides of the same coin. As always, I remain fascinated by the two, but unconvinced as to their utility.

Will God forgive us for our inhumanity?

That remains to be seen.

If God is both omniscient and omnipotent, doesn't it seem illogical that he/she/it would bother to create a universe in the first place?

Online ads grow both innovative and annoying
Saturday, June 23, 2001

Do I want to install and run Flash 5.0? No.

Do I want to install and run Flash 5.0? No.

Do I want to install and run Flash 5.0? No.

Do I want to install and run Flash 5.0? No.

Norton Wants to Shelf Bear Plan
Friday, June 22, 2001

"The grizzlies deserve the best opportunities for their populations to thrive and prosper and I am fully committed to the recovery of grizzly bears in the lower 48 states," Norton said. "Building support from state leaders is an important element to any potential partnership of this size and scope."

Hmm. Let's see, she's fully commited to restoring bear populations but she's against a cheap plan to restore them to tiny parts of the lower forty-eight. Sounds to me a lot like "say one thing and do the exact opposite".

What's that nasty odor I smell?

Oh yeah, it's the stench of hypocrisy.

Norton Defends Oil Drilling Lobbyist

A day after touring the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Interior Secretary Gale Norton on Wednesday defended her appointment of the former director of a group that lobbies for development in the refuge.

Norton said she chose Cam Toohey to serve as her special assistant for Alaska because he represents the views of the state's residents and of the Bush administration, which favors opening the refuge to development.

Norton Cancels Drilling Impact Study

The planned 18-month, $350,000 study would have examined, among other questions, what impact offshore drilling would have on the environment, tourism and the fishing industry.

The study area would have stretched from Cape Hatteras, N.C., to the Canadian border. Areas off New Jersey and North Carolina were singled out as potentially fruitful for oil and natural gas exploration.

Guess what sweetie? I'm watching you like a red-tailed hawk.

Bush Demands Senate Changes on Patient Bill
Friday, June 22, 2001

President Bush threatened today to veto the patients' rights bill now on the Senate floor. Democrats vowed to forge ahead with the legislation and accused Mr. Bush of standing with the health insurance industry against the American public.

In the U.S. good health care means not getting sick.

Multiplying warheads
Friday, June 22, 2001

Think Bush's "missile defense" can protect your family from being turned into charcoal briquettes by a nuclear strike? Think again.

If the US develops a national missile defence system, it could face up to 20 times as many land-based Russian nuclear warheads within six years as it would face without the system. That is the implication of statements made this week by Russian president Vladimir Putin.

"We will reinforce our capability, mounting multiple warheads on our missiles," if the US erects a missile shield, Putin said. "The nuclear arsenal of Russia will be augmented multifold" by such a move, he said, although it would "cost only a meagre sum of money".

Bush Loses Favor, Poll Says, Despite Tax Cut and Trip
Friday, June 22, 2001

Indeed, on energy and the environment, as well as on foreign affairs, Mr. Bush's ratings are well below 50 percent. His handling of foreign policy is approved by 47 percent of the public; his stewardship of the environment is approved by 39 percent a substantial decline from a month ago. And his handling of the nation's energy problems is approved by 33 percent.

Respondents were suspicious of the administration's energy priorities because of links between the oil industry and Mr. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney. Nearly two- thirds of Americans, including a plurality of Republicans, say that Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney are too beholden to oil companies, and that they are more likely to formulate policies that favor the industry.

The Supreme Court appointed an even bigger fool than Ronald Reagan (who was at least elected by a popular majority), so we shouldn't be too surprised that he's not well respected.

Bush Pushes Environment Spending As Polls Slump

After the fund-raiser, Bush was to fly to his ranch at Crawford, Texas, to spend the weekend. It will be his sixth break at the ranch since Bush took office in January.

At least we can't say he's not well rested, since he goes on vacation every month. As we all know, Nero fiddled while Rome burned.

N.Y. Close to Approving Cell Phone Ban
Friday, June 22, 2001

Lawmakers embraced the notion after independent polls showed New Yorkers favoring the ban by a wide margin. A March poll from the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute found that 87 percent of New York voters supported a ban.

It's only a $100 fine, but it's a start!

Consumer Reports Calls Mitsubishi SUV Unsafe
Friday, June 22, 2001

Latest SUV deathtrap isn't a Ford!

House Acts to Bar Drilling Off Florida
Friday, June 22, 2001

The Republican-controlled House voted by comfortable margins yesterday to block oil and gas exploration off the coast of Florida and to bar new oil, gas and coal exploration in millions of acres of national monuments, dealing a blow to President Bush's efforts to increase domestic energy supplies.

Woohoo! Strike two for Bush's drilling plan!

Bush losing momentum on drilling strategy

As for President Bush, an administration source told Reuters it would be “political suicide” to continue pushing hard for drilling in sensitive areas given his sagging approval rating on environmental and energy issues.

Power baron Enron finds fortunes fading

Enron Corp., the Houston power firm that's profited mightily during California's energy crisis, is suffering a surprising lack of popularity on Wall Street.

While all eyes have been on Enron's enormous profits here and its enormous pull in Washington, D.C., the reputed titan of the newly incarnated, free- wheeling power industry has lost half its market capitalization -- more than $30 billion -- since its peak in August.

Power Company Accused of Intentionally Cutting Supply

The former workers at the South Bay Duke Energy plant in Southern California say their company shut down their plant arbitrarily, scheduled maintenance when no parts were ready, and ran the least efficient turbines, all to drive up Californian's electricity costs.

No surprise there.

Exxon 'helped torture in Indonesia'

The case, brought on behalf of 11 Acehnese villagers, accuses Exxon of complicity in the murder, torture and sexual abuse of the local population.

It alleges that Exxon provided the Indonesian military with equipment to dig mass graves, as well as building interrogation and torture centres. Exxon denies all the allegations.

Haze Hangs Over US Summer
Monday, June 18, 2001

In an indication that these warning signs are beginning to register, three Dixie governors - from North Carolina, Georgia, and Tennessee - recently signed a clean-air pact. Although non-binding, the accord says "each state must do its part to protect and improve air quality."

The regional approach is essential since air pollution doesn't know state borders. In fact, many southern states complain that a lot of their air pollution is generated by coal-fired Tennessee Valley Authority plants. TVA is now spending $1 billion to reduce its own emissions.

The governors' recent summit coincides with proposed legislation in North Carolina, which would earmark $2.2 billion to clean-up five Tarheel smokestacks that emit the heaviest load of sulfur, nitrogen oxide, and mercury. In addition, the bill, which aims to cut pollution by 70 percent year-round, would also eliminate an EPA rule that allows energy firms to buy "pollution credits" from other companies that have already cleaned-up.

"The North Carolina smokestacks legislation is looking at taking real and substantive steps to reduce pollution," says Brownie Newman of the Western North Carolina Alliance in Asheville, N.C. "We may be the first Southern state to clean up our power plants, but we won't be the last."

We'll keep our fingers crossed. I'm thrilled that a conservative state like North Carolina is taking a leadership role on this issue. I can remember a time when we didn't have air quality warnings here in the South. Now, it's every other day in the summertime, even in smaller cities like where I live.

No Time To Waste

"Tokyo - World Dioxin Capital," read a banner hung by Greenpeace activists next to Toshima Ward's towering waste incinerator, the tallest on the planet. Emitting 40 percent of the world's dioxins-a byproduct of burnt plastic, which has been linked to cancers and birth defects-has earned Japan this dubious title. And this dangerous and destructive method of garbage disposal shows no signs of letting up. In April, the looming specter of yet another mega-incinerator began spewing smoke over Shibuya on a trial basis, adding to the more that 2000 municipal incinerators - by comparison, the US has fewer than 200 - currently in operation throughout the country. But just how far Japan can push the ecological envelope remains to be seen. As the menacing cloud of concentrated dioxins overshadows more and more of our fair megalopolis, the obvious question is why would a global economic and technological leader continue to poison its own atmosphere?

A McVeigh legacy: militias wane
Tuesday, June 12, 2001

How McVeigh helped the "patriot" movement crash and burn.

Pimps charge 'transfer fees' for women
Tuesday, June 12, 2001

Israeli brothel keepers have the right to buy and sell prostitutes in the same way that football clubs transfer players, a lawyer claimed last week. 'There is no difference between trading football players, hi-tech programmers, or surgeons, and selling women for purposes of prostitution,' Yaacov Shklar, who specialises in defending pimps, told a Knesset committee.

Slavery is dead, you say?

Justices Back Bible Group
Tuesday, June 12, 2001

Conservative legal scholars noted that the case fits into a recent trend in which the court has adopted a more accommodating position toward religion in public places when it believes that it is merely maintaining a fair balance between religious and secular activity. That could mean future support for President Bush's "faith-based" social services initiative, or for school vouchers, they said.

We don't need no stinkin' separation of church and state!

Bush Voices Doubts on Global Warming Causes
Tuesday, June 12, 2001

"We do not know how much effect natural fluctuations in climate may have had on warming," Bush said in a Rose Garden appearance before he departed for Madrid, the first stop on his five-day trip. "We do not know how much our climate could, or will change in the future. We do not know how fast change will occur, or even how some of our actions could impact it. . . . And, finally, no one can say with any certainty what constitutes a dangerous level of warming, and therefore what level must be avoided."

Scientific consensus? Who gives a shit!

If it might possibly hurt fossil fuel energy concerns than Bush and Cheney will oppose it kicking and screaming.

Assault rifles and children don't mix
Tuesday, June 12, 2001

Just my opinion.

Report: Nuclear Baby Tests Confirmed in Hong Kong
Tuesday, June 12, 2001

British newspapers reported last week that around 6,000 stillborn babies and dead infants had been sent to the United States and Britain from hospitals in Australia, Canada, Hong Kong and South America over a 15-year period without the permission of parents.

I love that this was called "Project Sunshine".

Bones of Australian Babies Used in Nuclear Tests

Cremated bones of Australian babies were shipped to the United States and Britain from the 1950s to the 1970s without parental consent to test for radioactive fall-out from nuclear tests.

Sick. Sick. Sick.

Rocket Guy: Oregon Man Set for Self-Launch
Tuesday, June 12, 2001

I suspect that this is just a shameless ploy by a nut to get media attention, but I guess it would make a good Junkyard Wars episode. You know the media. they're even easier to dupe than webloggers!

NY Mulls Cell Phone Ban for Drivers
Tuesday, June 12, 2001

Carrying broad public support, bans on drivers using hand-held cell phones have been proposed in 40 states, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. None of the bills has passed yet, although a measure in New York is expected to win approval soon.

Hoorah for drivers, if the various legislatures have the guts not to kowtow to the telecommunications industry.

As Biotech Crops Multiply, Consumers Get Little Choice
Sunday, June 10, 2001

Is it too late to stop them?

They are even turning up where people least expect them: in countries where they are banned but a black market has developed; in food supplies where they are forbidden or shunned, like organic products; even in fields that farmers believe are completely free of genetically modified crops.

The rapid adoption and proliferation means that even as scientists and others debate the safety of altering foods' genetic codes to produce cheaper and bigger supplies, a large share of the world's population has little or no choice but to consume genetically modified crops.

High pay either way
Sunday, June 10, 2001

While corporate earnings were tanking and stock prices were collapsing, the top executives at the Bay Area's largest companies enjoyed huge pay increases.

The 325 executives from 59 companies included in The Chronicle's 17th annual executive-compensation survey received an average of $13.3 million during fiscal 2000 in salaries, bonuses, long-term incentive awards and -- as the bulk of their pay -- new option grants.

That's a staggering 93 percent increase from the $6.9 million average compensation received by the executives in the previous year's survey. It compares with a 40 percent pay hike those executives got in fiscal 1999.

CEOs no longer need "golden parachutes" when corporations reward them for poor performance. Um, what happened to competition and the free market?

It was a fat 2000 for top Northwest CEOs

Even without options and other long-term incentives, Northwest CEOs did quite well for themselves last year: While the average base salary for the 73 executives studied rose a respectable 15.3 percent, to $513,709, the average bonus soared 55.5 percent, to $506,274.

Even workers in more stable industries saw their wages rise much less than the CEO group did - 2.5 percent for the average worker in King County, according to state figures.

Bush to Set Climate Pact Alternative
Sunday, June 10, 2001

Bush and Vice President Cheney have not accepted an appeal from several Cabinet members, including Secretary of State Colin L. Powell and Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Christine Todd Whitman, for the administration to begin consulting with U.S. companies on a mandatory emissions reduction effort, administration officials said. Whitman has argued that most countries are "shocked and angry" at Bush's approach to global warming, while Powell has contended that the United States must put forth "a serious solution to a serious problem," officials said.

As expected, he plans to do nothing but waffle furiously.

I hope that European countries will show some backbone and leadership on this issue, as opposed to their usual kowtowing to U.S. demands (see Tony Blair and right wing con man, now Italian Prime Minister, Silveo Burlusconi). I'm not optimistic. It's always fun to see Bush shoot himself in the head with his own hubris and stupidity, but that's just schadenfreude.

Jellyplants on Mars
Saturday, June 9, 2001

As part of a proposed mission that could put plants on Mars as soon as 2007, University of Florida professor Rob Ferl is bioengineering tiny mustard plants. He's not altering these plants so that they can adapt more easily to Martian conditions. Instead, he's adding reporter genes: part plant, part glowing jellyfish -- so that these diminutive explorers can send messages back to Earth about how they are faring on another planet.

Is it OK to plant genetically engineered lifeforms on another planet? discuss amongst yourselves.

Bush's Avoidance Policy Starts to Rankle
Saturday, June 9, 2001

The topic was the largest tax cut in a generation--by far President Bush's top priority. Yet the conversation in the White House rarely strayed from superficialities.

Repeatedly, Bush's guests tried to engage him in a detailed give-and-take about the tax cut's far-reaching ramifications. But the president deflected virtually every such attempt by the senior Republican members of the congressional budget committee, referring them to his staff. Instead, as he did last week in meetings on energy with California Gov. Gray Davis, he stuck to a gloss-the-details script.

"He's engaged. But it's all surface engagement--all kinds of wisecracks, snortling and nicknames," fumed a Republican senator who participated in the recent budget meeting in the White House Cabinet Room.

Thanks again Supreme Court for appointing this fratboy dimwit.

Thanks, OliverWillis.Com :)

To those of you who received honors, awards and distinctions, I say well done and to the C students, I say, you, too, can be president of the United States.

George W. Bush - May 21, 2001

Conspiracy theories in Kathmandu
Saturday, June 9, 2001

Vomiting gods, power plays and the Nepal royal massacre.

First Bush Missile Defense Test Said Likely in July
Saturday, June 9, 2001

The test will be rigged, just like last time.

Tangled Web: The Marketing of Missile Defense 1994-2000

What is so idiotic about the concept of limited missile defense from "rogue states" is that a nuclear attack from these nations isn't likely to be delivered by a ballistic missile. Think about how easy it would be to smuggle a nuke on a container ship, sail into a port city and *BOOM*! Goodbye Manhattan. Or San Francisco. Or Miami. Bush's plan can't defend us from such an attack, no matter how many hundreds of billions of dollars he spends on it.

Set piece defenses never work.

They only provide a false sense of security.

This often proves deadly.

Just ask the French about the Maginot Line.

Researchers Divided Over Anasazi
Friday, June 8, 2001

OK, maybe they ate people, but in what context?

The Body in Question

Comprehensive article on Kennewick Man legal battle.

Spectacular finds of lost city revealed

Thanks, Ancient World Web :)

Mont. Officials at Odds on Roadless Forest Plan
Friday, June 8, 2001

Breaking ranks with much of the Western state leadership and his own governor, Montana Atty. Gen. Mike McGrath filed a legal brief Wednesday in support of a federal ban on road building and logging on 58 million acres of national forests.

Defying Republican Gov. Judy Martz, who has been an outspoken opponent of the roadless plan drafted by the former Clinton administration, McGrath filed a federal appeals court brief saying he "strongly disagreed" with an Idaho judge's ruling last month against the policy.

Forest Chief Takes Road Decisions

The Bush administration is not going to be blatant about overturning the roadless policy, instead they will gradually chip away at it, acre by acre.

The scarlet B
Friday, June 8, 2001

Belief in Bigfoot can also adversely affect a person's relations with the opposite sex. Too many reasonable people think that Bigfoot is a sign that a person is too odd for dating purposes. Almost all Bigfoot researchers are separated from their spouses, divorced or single. Those who are attached have typically found love in the understanding arms of other Bigfooters. Numerous times, after being introduced to an attractive, intelligent, promising young woman, it has come out later that I'm "really into Bigfoot." Needless to say, I have never gotten anywhere with any of those attractive, intelligent, promising young women.

Yes, I too have also found that if you have beliefs or interests that are outside of the mainstream, you're best off keeping them to yourself in the early stages of a new friendship or relationship!

As I've said before, there's much more evidence for Bigfoot, the Loch Ness Monster, UFOs and other such phenomena than there is for God. Yet, those of us who seriously consider such phenomena are freaks while people who go to church and pray to the invisible man in the sky are considered quite sane.

(BTW, I am not an atheist. Atheism requires even more faith than worshiping said invisible sky god. You've got to have some serious nerve to say without a trace of doubt that there is no God!)

Tracking the Bigfoot trackers

New evidence in extinction whodunnit
Friday, June 8, 2001

New evidence indicates that prehistoric man, like modern man, wasn't very good at species conservation.

Panel Rejects Bush Plan on Species
Friday, June 8, 2001

Rejecting a prominent part of President Bush's environmental agenda, House Republicans shot down a proposal restricting the ability of environmental groups to get plants and animals added to the endangered species list.

The lawmakers also ignored Bush's request for $2 million for preparatory studies for oil drilling the president wants to begin in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. That was the latest sign that Bush's proposal to drill in the sanctuary, opposed by environmentalists, is all but dead in Congress.

Global warming worsening, Bush's expert panel warns
Thursday, June 7, 2001

Does anyone think he really cares? Expect more thumb twiddling and faux environmentalist prattle from Bush, just like his esteemed predecessor Clinton.

Scientists warn Bush on global warming

Gas cap

If Bush hears about this, he'll blame global warming on cow farts!

Voters' distrust, disgust doomed arena package
Thursday, June 7, 2001

Charlotte votes down "welfare for sports team owners" arena package by huge margin. This happened despite round the clock pro-arena informercials and ad campaigns.

Meanwhile the mayor, who tried to extort money from the state legislature for the arena package, calls a living wage for city goverment employees "socialism" and also tried to block putting affordable housing bonds on the 2002 ballot.

The conclusion I draw from this is that the Charlotte city government thinks that helping the working poor is bad, but tax based handouts to the stinking rich are good.

Bye Hornets. Don't let the door hit you in the ass as your flee town for another city full of rubes that are just waiting to be bilked.

The Astounding B Monster
Tuesday, June 5, 2001

Scads of 50's era B-movie stuff. The Angry Beavers would love it.

Air Mail Pioneers
Tuesday, June 5, 2001

Air Mail Service pilots are the unsung heroes of early aviation. In their frail Curtiss Jennies and postwar de Havillands, they battled wind, snow, and sleet to pioneer round-the-clock airmail service along the world's longest air route, the U.S. transcontinental. In the process, thirty-four pilots lost their lives.

A fascinating and important bit of aviation history.

The Megalithic Portal
Tuesday, June 5, 2001

A Slashdot style ancient archaeology site.

Nepalese King Denies Murder Claim
Sunday, June 3, 2001

Nepal's acting king on Sunday blamed ``accidental'' machine-gun fire for killing most of the royal family, an explanation that provoked angry disbelief in the Himalayan nation.

Yeah, that's believable. Machine guns go off by themselves in my neighborhood all the time!

Key Bush advisers report large Enron holdings
Sunday, June 3, 2001

At least three top White House advisers involved in drafting President Bush's energy strategy held stock in the Enron Corp. or earned fees from the large Texas-based energy trading company, which lobbied aggressively to shape the administration's approach to energy issues.

How not surprising.

Activists accused of favoring cash over mission at Moss Landing

Eager to placate environmentalists, the Duke Energy Corp. agreed to pay more than $12 million to Monterey Bay area groups whose objections could have scuttled the controversial expansion of its Moss Landing power plant, destined to be the state's largest.

Most of the groups are now being accused of taking financial advantage of the situation and betraying their mission as environmentalists to defend the Monterey Bay area's fragile harbors, sloughs and wetlands. The environmental groups protested until Duke put up money, then dropped their opposition.

Sellout greedheads to the left of me.

Sellout greedheads to the right of me.

N.C. mountain air, once wholesome, now harmful
Friday, June 1, 2001

They don't call them the Great Smoky Mountains for nothing.

For decades, people consumed by hacking, coughing and wheezing have taken refuge in the green mountains of North Carolina, whose air was touted as the most healthful in the land. Though its famed tuberculosis sanitariums have long since disappeared, the region is no less dependent on visitors drawn to its deep forests, mountain breezes and once endless vistas. But Western North Carolina is confronting a new reality: the air is now a problem, not an asset.

Given that Western North Carolina relies so heavily on tourist dollars, worsening air pollution could seriously damage the local economy. Since I grew up in the Asheville area, I can tell you with all certainty that the air is a lot nastier than it used to be. What is really annoying is that energy concerns will be able to pass the cost of cleanup to the consumer.

Shocked, shocked I am!

Human Factor Was at Core Of Vote Fiasco
Friday, June 1, 2001

"It's an odd way to run a government."

Yes. Yes it is.

Botched Name Purge Denied Some the Right to Vote

The Chess Variant Pages
Friday, June 1, 2001

This should keep you busy for a while.

Buckland's Third Revolution
Friday, June 1, 2001

Didn't you know that the entire universe is based on threes?

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