Comments Tom Twigg has made

Predicting the weather and predicting the climate are two VERY different things Bud, you ought to know that. One is highly volatile and the other can be trended and modeled over time. May and June in your area = weather; averaging years and decades of temperatures = climate. I am not a scientist but I can understand this much. People who, for whatever reason, want to deny climate change seem to prefer mixing them interchangeably as you do to back a position for which there is no scientific support.

Wow. Kind of hard to watch, but then I guess it should be. Kudos for pulling no punches.

Won't rising sea levels effect all coasts more or less equally, or am I missing something?

As Reps Henry Waxman and Ed Markey explain the merits of their climate bill, Rep John Dingell works up a methane response.

Aren't we reading here because we have a sense of humor to accompany our conscience (or gloom and doom)? What's the saying ... if you can't laugh at yourself who are you going to laugh at? I admit it, I laughed.

EPA or INS?

It is a little odd how just about every person on this list looks foreign or has a foreign sounding name. Are there no John Smiths, Bob Jones or Brad Johnsons out there doing bad things to the environment, or is it just a crime if you aren't sure how to pronounce their name?
On EPA unveils 'most wanted' list of environmental criminals posted 11 months, 3 weeks ago 2 Responses

Buzz Kill

This bit of news popped my post-election real-change-is-imminent euphoria and made me remember the Supremes ... that Bush gift that will keep on giving. On Navy can use sonar despite risk of whale harm, says Supreme Court posted 1 year ago 16 Responses

Yeah, but ...

No fan of Palin here, but to be fair, her policies as governor -- for the whole 22 months she has held the position -- have hardly been in place long enough to effect birth-defect rates (or much else for that matter).

The fact that her policies are as resource extractive/exploitative weighted as any of her predecessors (and are in fact the clear focus of her administration's efforts) in light of the growing evidence that such single-mindedness is unhealthy should be what critics focus on.

If a twigg falls in the forest but nobody is there to hear it, it's probably best because there is bound to be cussing.

What the hell, no "off the twig"?

I'm so not talking to you guys todayOn From Pork to Poke posted 1 year, 4 months ago 2 Responses

I can imagine the pain

he has endured over the last 7 1/2 years, funny he hasn't talked about that. Let it out Rush, you'll feel better.

If a twigg falls in the forest but nobody is there to hear it, it's probably best because there is bound to be cussing.

Nader's credibility problem

Nader used similar rhetoric in the '2000 campaign, claiming he needed to be in the race because there wasn't enough difference between the major party candidates (Gore and Bush) ... before he can be at all credible he needs to come out and admit how wrong that was and apologize for his role in the 8 years of Bush that we will have endured (it is too early to know if we can say survived) since Gore's "loss".

If there is a bright side to this development, it may be that certain people who had been reluctant to endorse will feel compelled to do so now. What do you think, Al?On Ralph Nader jumps into the presidential race posted 1 year, 9 months ago 31 Responses

Cold coffee blues

I don't want to insult PCD or Umbra, but this question and its answer (save the thermos) are flawed.

If you drink coffee (and by coffee I mean coffee, not coffee flavored sweetened milk) because you enjoy the taste, then you cannot possibly reheat it -- it is easily burned and quickly tastes like something that needs milk and sugar. The question of reheating coffee is akin to "what's greener, buying conventionally grown food or dumpster diving for your meals?" Clearly, dumpster diving for food is about as low impact as you can eat ... but yuck.

The best solution of all to on-demand hot coffee could be a little known technique, I'll call it "cold pressed" for lack of more knowledge, that is more labor intensive but lasts much longer  (I have only seen it served in a Fairbanks, AK health food store). "Cold pressed" coffee involves grinding beans, wrapping the grounds in layers of cheese cloth or some other (preferably organic cotton) cloth, soaking the ball in cold water, then hanging it and collecting the concentrated coffee that drips out of it.  Put the product in a bottle and add a measured amount (to taste) to a cup of hot (microwave heated if you like) water -- and enjoy the smoothest cup of coffee goodness that you've ever had. No heat is applied to extract the coffee from the beans so there is much less acid and the nasties that are extracted by hot water brewing. Put the bottle of concentrate in the fridge and it will keep for days (or so I'm told). If only I wasn't so lazy.

So, PCD, when you need another cup of hot coffee and the pot is cold (you might blame me, I often turn off the burner before it gets totally gross), just let me know and I'll take care of the dirty work, you don't have to know what eco-sins were committed in its making.

(BTW, the 3 lb. bag of organic coffee from Costco isn't half bad and costs less than 1 lb. of most good non-organic brands.)
On Umbra on reheating coffee posted 2 years ago 20 Responses

I'm just guessing ...

there must be nothing to do in Kent?On From Lohan to Lovin' posted 2 years, 3 months ago 3 Responses

Where's the bulbs?

I (cough cough) had an occasion (cough) tovisitawalmartrecently ...

and was both impressed and disappointed with what I saw. The CFL display was great, showing the many types of standard light bulbs and their CFL equivalent and comparing their energy use and cost over time. You would have to be dimmer than the average Wal-mart shopper not to understand the CFL advantage. And, apparently, they were selling the CFL bulbs very cheaply, making the switch a no-brainer.

However, on closer look, all of the display cubbies we full of the same bulb ... nothing in stock but vanity globes. Under $2.00 mind you, but not really suitable for anywhere but that very limited lighting need above the bathroom mirror. They get you all excited, then pull the carpet out from under you. You walk away kind of pissed, which I guess is fairly typical of most Wal-mart experiences. (Not that I'd know.)

If a twigg falls in the forest but nobody is there to hear it, it's probably best because there is bound to be cussing.

5 cents is not enough

I'm not usually too boastful about my Michigan roots, but one thing that my birth state has done right is their bottle/can return law, which does most states one better by placing the deposit value at 10 cents. 5 cents is quickly becoming the equivalent of the dirty penny in the street, many people just not seeing the value in the trouble of collecting it. For those too snooty to worry about even 10 cents, it is enough to make sure that somebody will bother to pick it up. Now the roadsides are just littered with McDonalds trash and plastic grocery bags (sigh).

Where Michigan could improve on their bottle/can return law would be to expand it to include all beverage containers, not just carbonated ones. Is a juice bottle strewn along the roadside any less objectionable than a beer bottle or pop can? Anybody for a quarter?

If a twigg falls in the forest but nobody is there to hear it, it's probably best because there is bound to be cussing.

Gotta love it

It was particularly nice to see (in the CNN piece) Inhofe getted slapped by a fellow republican. The more politicians that distance themselves from the denialists rhetoric the easier it should be to move some meaningful legislation forward. One can hope, anyways.

If a twigg falls in the forest but nobody is there to hear it, it's probably best because there is bound to be cussing.

No Angels Here

Anybody interested in this discussion should read John Perkins' Confessions of an Economic Hit Man. Perkins tells the story of how he was recruited out of an MBA program by the NSA then hired by a corporation to carry out a US imperialist agenda in third world countries rich in resources ... a stint in the Peace Corps even figured into his training.

In a nutshell, Perkins (and others like him) would be sent to a developing/undeveloped country, use his Peace Corp creds and business connections to get friendly with government higher-ups, convince them that they could become a great nation (and powerful leader) if only they undertook some huge public works project (damn or some other infrastructure that would be necessary for development). Nevermind they couldn't possibly afford it, he could use his connections at the World Bank to secure them the money they would need. The loan is made, US contractors are hired to do the majority of the work (conveniently the money never has to leave the US), the project gets built, the loan comes due, the country can't pay, Perkins is back negotiating a bail out that involved better and discounted access to resources that were the goal in the first place. Nice game.

What might be even more interesting/unsettling is to hear Perkins describe what happens when this under-the-radar imperialism fails. People tend to get killed, wars breakout. Iraq and Iran are two countries he mentions having gone wrong.

Read an interview with Perkins at Democracy Now.

If a twigg falls in the forest but nobody is there to hear it, it's probably best because there is bound to be cussing.

Arrogant assumptions

It is precisely because dolphins and other cetaceans have evolved in a cold ocean atmosphere so unlike our own that we cannot make comparisons with land mammal brains with any certainty. Who is to say that such conditions wouldn't evolve a different brain structure for higher orders of thinking?

Certainly processing accoustic feedback/echolocation/communication requires some higher level of intellegence. The escape response the Dr. Manger refers to seems to be more likely a primitive instinct that an indication of cognitive thinking.

The assumptions we often make about other species (yes, I would have to include myself in this group occasionally) strike me as arrogant. It reminds me of the surprise that scientists had when they accidentally discovered with recording equipment that giraffes, long thought to be mute because we didn't hear them, communicated with each other at frequencies too long for human hearing to detect. Too often our own limitations define the world around us.

If a twigg falls in the forest but nobody is there to hear it, it's probably best because there is bound to be cussing.

Frankly,

I'm more concerned about people confusing capitalism with democracy. We have lots of one, not as much as we'd like to think of the other.

If a twigg falls in the forest but nobody is there to hear it, it's probably best because there is bound to be cussing.

Um, remember the flood-arc episode?

Have no worries, God will instruct a modern day Noah to build a biosphere and save a few critters.

"... people can only sustain so many moral movements in their lifetime." Is that in the bible somewhere?

If a twigg falls in the forest but nobody is there to hear it, it's probably best because there is bound to be cussing.

Cogen term might suffer from inconsistent use

I read this post with interest because my understanding of cogeneration was formed by a project using that name in my hometown 20 years ago, and it was not positive.

At that time, cogeneration was being used to describe a power plant using multiple fuel sources ... this one (pushed on a small municipality by a local industrialist) touted that it would produce cheap power by supplementing coal with scrap wood. Later, after construction (surprise!), the plan morphed from burning "scrap wood" to burning local timber at some ridiculous rate (I'm remembering 100 cords a day, but this was a long time ago.). Visiting years later I could see a haze over the area that didn't used to be there, emanating from the stacks of this "cogen" plant. The town had been generating electricity from a cleaner but probably more expensive natural gas facility.

I wonder how many other people might hesitate to embrace the cogeneration terminology of today because of its dubious use in the past?

If a twigg falls in the forest but nobody is there to hear it, it's probably best because there is bound to be cussing.

If only ...

The problem with these suggestions is that they assume that older cars get significantly worse mileage than newer ones ... I wish this were true, as it would imply that we have come a long way in improving fuel economy in this country.

The sad truth is that the average american car got better mileage in 1979 that it does today. On the bus ride leg of my trip to work today we passed an intersection where I noticed the cars lined up behind a stop sign waiting to get on the highway. Seven cars, all of them looking rather "newish" ... six of them were SUVs or vans, and a single small car (VW Beetle), the only one that would get better mileage than my old but otherwise good '84 Volvo.

So, I see the "let's subsidize trade-ins for newer cars" to be more of a subsidy to the auto industry than anything else, if you aren't going to require the upgrade to meet higher fuel economy standards or some other meaningful benchmark. Newer just doesn't cut in by itself.

If a twigg falls in the forest but nobody is there to hear it, it's probably best because there is bound to be cussing.

If I had a hammer

I think that is called "hitting the nail on the head," and illustrates why those who believe market forces will always save the day are so wrong.

If a twigg falls in the forest but nobody is there to hear it, it's probably best because there is bound to be cussing.

Call it what you will

I am no fan of WalMart and count myself among those "with half a brain," but I wonder what difference it makes if this new face of WalMart was concocted by the PR boys in the backroom or by the genuine concern of its CEO? The only litmus test should be whether or not real change results. If we refuse to believe that the worst offenders can change for the better, we might as well quit caring and find a nice cave to wait out the last days.

Continue to boycott Walmart if it makes you feel better (I know I will), but let's reserve judgement on Mr. Scott's green ambitions until we see if he really can make waves. Considering what is at stake, I for one hope he can do it.On An interview with Wal-Mart CEO H. Lee Scott posted 3 years, 7 months ago 22 Responses

Oil money greases public opinion

There is both truth and error in your comment, but the jist of it is correct I think.

The Alaska Permanent Fund Dividend (PFD) checks that Alaska residents receive every Octoboer does not come directly from oil companies, but from an investment fund that the state set up when it first started realizing the windfall revenues from north slope oil development. The fund is worth billions of dollars and every year a percentage of the fund's growth (actually calculated for a 5 year average) is divided evenly among qualifying Alaska residents, the balance is reinvested in the fund. Payouts have more to do with stock market conditions than the price of oil or new oil development. In 2005 each qualifying resident received approximately $850. The amount has been as high as $1900 in the past.

I think it is true that many Alaskans have had their feelings about oil development tainted by this money -- for many years I did not apply for it myself for this reason. When I went back to school to get a teaching certificate I decided to start taking the money to help pay my expenses. When I had a son, his annual check went into a savings account to help pay for his college tuition some day. In many remote villages this money may represent a large part of a family's annual income.

I know of others who have declined to take the "oil money bribe," and I  know of at least one person who takes his family's PFD money every year and donates the entire amount to Alaskan environmental organizations ( ... he writes books you might enjoy... ).

If a twigg falls in the forest but nobody is there to hear it, it's probably best because there is bound to be cussing.