Comments jas has made

  • animals, right

    I had to unsubscribe from PETA's e-newsletters because of the same thing... too much girlskin used to sell their message.  I'm not one of those feminists who goes nuts every time a scantily-clad woman is on display but they were truly OTT, check it out sometime.  I agree w/above poster: if you're in the business of sensitizing people to animal exploitation and abuse, why use other historically abused and exploited creatures (i.e. us, female humans) as the vehicle? It just seems so... inconsistent.  On Did NBC squash PETA corn-porn? posted 10 months ago 44 Responses

  • say what

    I like how she says "I'm not gonna solely blame all man's activities on changes in climate"... um, huh?

    And she couldn't name ONE publication she reads. What's that about?  Don't you know what you read? Do you read? Use the internet? Watch tee wee? We know you can read, Sarah, we've seen you using the teleprompter...

    It's clear she isn't informed, certainly not enough for the job she wants,  but what's most disturbing is that Palin possesses zero native intelligence--she can't think on her feet, can't even FAKE a reasonable sounding answer to reasonably easy questions. She has no mental agility whatsoever. I can't believe this is happening.On More Couric and Palin, on drilling and climate change posted 1 year, 2 months ago 29 Responses

  • not seriously...?

    I can't debate the science (tho I too live in France), but I did work on the immense WPPSS litigation (centred in the PacNW) back in the 1980s... for those who don't know about this, it was a flurry of multi-district class action suits against, well, everyone, over 5 nuclear plants planned but never built.  The Washington Public Power Supply System issued bonds to pay for the plants, then had to default on the bonds when all they ended up with, after years of faffing around, were "dry holes".  So players in the various resulting suits included institutional and individual investors (lots of old people who had put their life savings into these very "safe" AAA rated bonds), banks, rural electrical coops, the BPA, the engineers... and on and on.

    Lots of Reagan-era villains involved, lots of money flying around... point in the pointless forest being, millions, maybe billions, made it into the pockets of the big engineering firms (Bechtel and Burns and Roe were involved, among others) as well as the financial guys.  The NW never got the power, the investors were screwed, the original power needs forecasts were proven ludicrously wrong, the plants that did get started were abandoned due to irreversible safety problems (one plant had CARDBOARD pipe whip restraints painted to look like metal--you wanna see hot radioactive steam running through that baby)... well you get the picture.  

    I believe these projects are, or could easily be, fronts for more backhanders to politicians' rich friends (at that time the former CEO of Bechtel was in Reagan's govt, the former head of BPA--Don Hodel--was his Sec of Interior, etc).

    No wonder McCain supports them.  On McCain's nuclear plan would cost $315 billion, with taxpayers risking over $100 billion posted 1 year, 2 months ago 21 Responses

  • go viral with this

    I have sent a link to this ad to everyone I know in the event they haven't seen it.  Even if you're not an animal rights or environmental activist, the film is horrifying, the implications clear.

    Let's bring these creeps down, now.On Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund endorses Obama-Biden ticket posted 1 year, 2 months ago 3 Responses

  • upside down tomatoes

    check out tomatocasual.com for their "upside-down" tomato growing method... strange but it seems to work and doesn't take a lot of space.  Just hang buckets from a cable or hooks... and the tomatoes grow out from the bottom.On Urban gardening for the rest of us posted 1 year, 3 months ago 3 Responses

  • info for Jon

    Yes I do believe it will really be that bad... and since the economy here is based on agriculture as well as (increasingly) tourism, you're looking at a potential disaster on many fronts.

    For more info on the debate here, check out ventdecolere.org, or collectif.4.octobre.free.fr, or this article:

    www.lexpress.fr/actualite/environnement/vent-de-fronde-contre-l-eolien_542685.html

    I also clarified with my friend who told me about the EDF deal, and it's not them, it's some association who is helping people install personal eoliens, tho the EDF will help you hook them into their grid, AND you can write them off your taxes (along with any other sort of energy-saving expense: we just wrote off two double-glazed doors this year).

    I found several sorts of personal windmills at www.wede-energy.com/produits-co

    You have to base them in metal sleeves or, better, cement, and they come in sizes that vary from 1.5 metres to 6 metres (!).  One mountain village around here is lobbying to get their own eolien for village power, and I find this idea quite interesting too.

    The nuke plant you're thinking of is at Montelimar (I think) in the Massif Central, the one with the strange painting of a little boy on one of the towers... urk.

    I forgot to mention, David, that I too found the We campaign's last email off-putting and dumped it summarily into the trash... thinking, what's this about...?  Appears they're joining the media in their disinformation campaign against Obama?  On We campaign continues to shoot itself, and climate movement, in the foot posted 1 year, 3 months ago 30 Responses

  • ill wind...

    I have to agree with a lot of what stopgreenpath says, as we are muddling through some serious wind power dilemmas here (very windy SW France) right now.  Since the French electricity company, EDF, was deregulated, hundreds of IPPs have been flooding in trying to set up gigantic windmills (eoliens) all over our beautiful hills.  The plan is to erect something like 2000+ of these things: in other words we'll be bristling with not only eoliens, but their accompanying power towers.

    None of the power coming off these windmills is for us, by the way:  it will be sold on to Spain and other neighboring countries, while we're still getting our power from nuke plants.

    So many locals, enviros as well as pretty much everyone else, are fighting these things, or trying to anyway.  Our local ecosystems are delicate enough w/o stripping the hillsides bare, digging out roads, flattening hilltops, putting up towers, etc etc, not to mention what will happen to birds and bats when they ram into these jumbo-jet size mills.

    Point in the pointless forest is, the destruction of protected and/or fragile lands for "clean" power generation is akin to throwing the baby out with the bathwater.  One of the activists against the eoliens here is a Danish woman, and she has provided much info about the Danish approach to wind power--both their mistakes and their successes--information that should be assimilated into any new wind power planning effort.

    On the other hand, EDF is providing individuals with subsidies to set up personal windmills in their gardens etc., to generate household power.  These are compact and efficient, and might be an interesting option in the future.   On We campaign continues to shoot itself, and climate movement, in the foot posted 1 year, 3 months ago 30 Responses

  • new deal

    I've heard people talk about a Green New Deal, and I wish Obama would amplify on that a bit... lots of employment generation possible from greentech as well as creating public transport infrastructure.  I agree with above that gas prices should be high and should stay high, but not without alternative forms of transport--it ends up hurting the poorest households.  Why not use the peace dividend from getting OUT OF IRAQ to help states and urban areas create rail and bus systems?

    Britannicus:  eew.  When in doubt, point at the (most recent) strangers among us.  Simple answers to hard questions...On More drilling in exchange for comprehensive energy legislation posted 1 year, 3 months ago 24 Responses

  • reusing fur

    tough dilemma.  How about lining the inside of a parka with the inherited fur?  Seems like it would be more effective that way, I've never understood the fur on the outside thing.On Umbra on (inherited) fur coats posted 1 year, 10 months ago 60 Responses