The Red Brick Times

Trust environmentalists, but verify
Washington Times 01/25/02
author: Frank R. Hotchkiss / Tribune Media Services
(Copyright 2001)

Federal and Washington state scientists recently tried to limit the use of two national forests by
faking evidence that the parks were home to a threatened species, the Canadian lynx.

Two U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service employees, two Washington state Department of Fish and
Wildlife employees and three employees from the Gifford Pinchot National Forest sent bogus
lynx hairs to a laboratory in an effort to dupe authorities into believing the animal inhabited the
Wenatchee and Gifford Pinchot forests. DNA tests of the fur exposed the fraud the hair came
from captive lynxes. Logging, tree-thinning for fire prevention, and many recreational activities
could have been restricted if this hoax had not been exposed.

What does this have to do with cars, the customary subject of this column?

Plenty.

Cars remain a principal target of environmentalists and regulators. Automobiles are under
attack for supposedly contributing to pollution and global warming.

Cars do contribute to local pollution, but carmakers have significantly improved their products
in an effort to become more environmentally friendly. Due at least partly to these efforts, air
quality has dramatically improved in the United States over the last two decades, according to
a study by the Environmental Protection Agency. Levels of ozone declined 43 percent from
1980 through 1999 in 323 major metropolitan areas afflicted by ozone pollution.

Sixty-six percent of the ozone-affected cities in the United States had zero violations of
air-quality standards in 1997-1999, the figures indicated. In the Los Angeles-Long Beach
corridor, ozone days went from 154 annually in the early 1980s to 23 in the late 1990s. San
Diego cut its ozone days from 71 a year to just three. Philadelphia's ozone days went from 34
to six, and New York's dropped from 26 to five. Much-maligned Houston cut its ozone days
from 62 to 39.

What makes these figures especially impressive is the fact that they coincided with a 20 percent
growth of the U.S. population and a whopping 76 percent increase in driving nationwide. This
is particularly important because environmental advocates continue to argue for the tightening
of environmental regulations despite these improvements, saying that population increases are
negating environmental gains.

Public credibility in these matters is important. In the past, environmental claims were as
sacrosanct as motherhood and apple pie. Now, it appears some people are adopting the
modus operandi, "The end justifies the means." In other words, when it comes to the
environment, anything goes.

Lest you think the Washington state incident is an isolated one, consider that the unique habitat
of the tiny snail darter held up construction of the Tellico Dam in Tennessee for years. "Build
the dam and we will lose this fish forever" were the claims.

Lo and behold, it turns out the snail darter could be found in a lot of places, and the dam,
eventually built, wasn't a big deal in the snail darter's world at all.

And remember the controversy over the spotted owl, which was said to be disappearing due
to old-growth forest depletion? Owl population was down because their food source, the
rodent population, was down. In fact, new-growth forests provided a lot more rodent dinners
for the owl.

What's the point of all this? When it comes to environmental claims about your awful SUV,
your gas-guzzling Cadillac or your global-warming Porsche, take a very close look, because
you cannot always take at face value the word of people who feel so ardently about their cause
that for them, anything goes.
Posted 11:11 PM by Andy Allan 0 comments

Urban navigation technique: If you're ever unsure as to which direction you're heading take a look at the satellite dishes. They're always pointing SW. It's like the moss growing on the north side of the tree. (This is probably limited to in the northeastern U.S.)

We have a possible RBT road trip in the offing this comming Saturday! Andy hasn't positively confirmed on the details yet, at least to me, but I think it'll be a go. Read his post and comments from Saturday, Feb. 16th, for the birds eye lowdown.
Posted 8:34 AM by whatley 0 comments

Just got a Log Line newsletter mailing from the Vermilion City Schools. It is an example of how the Elyria Board of Education should communicate with their patrons and taxpayers. Vermilion Schools details how they have already implemented 7 major projects of heating and cooling system replacements, roof replacements, boiler replacements, and lighting improvements by obtaining State funds under the "House Bill 264" Energy Conservation Grant program. They obtained a million dollar loan from the State to complete the projects, based on engineering assumptions of energy savings to be realized. Then, the savings in energy costs are used to pay back the loan. The overall budget remains constant. The savings come after the loan is repaid, and for the rest of the life of the building improvements. From my experience with high-efficiency heating systems, windows and insulation, utility costs can be trimmed by 30%-40% in older structures.

They also detailed improvements made through business and private donations and volunteer efforts, including sports stadium stands and pressbox. In addition, the City and School District formed a partnership to allow joint facility use, and the City paid for new baseball and softball fields as a result.

Also (and here is the genius part), the newsletter shows how, since the Emergency Levy was approved in November 1999, the District has operated within the allocated budget, and has improved both infrastructure and State test scores. The levy is due to expire in December, 2002. The newsletter clearly shows (bar chart with revenue, expenses and cash flow) how deficits will result beginning at -$1.5 million in June 2004 increasing to -$8 million by June 2006 if the current funding levels are not maintained. They note that no increased homeowner financial burden would result from a renewal, and that there would be no need for additional local school taxes to stay in the black through the 2006 forecast period.

Great message and presentation!
1) We are within the budget you voted for us
2) We are improving the system by using innovative non-tax funding
3) Our students' performance is improving
4) Renewal will be sufficient - no new costs for you

And they are starting now (February) for a November issue, allowing plenty of time for questions and comments.
I am being treated as an intelligent and reasonable taxpayer. What a change!
Posted 11:42 PM by Andy Allan 0 comments

How in Tunkett's name could we have been about for all this time and not adopted the noble and ancient custom of Hoodening? Especially when there is a plethora of Hoodening Songs to accompany the traipse. Who's got the horse?
Posted 4:07 PM by Andy Allan 0 comments

What a stench.
Where can I find the dissidents?
Is that Notre Dame or the Louvre?
Back home we'd call this a village.
Your country has such lovely dirt.
I don't suppose there's anything but churches here.
I bet those machine guns are fake.
Are all of your jails this filthy?
Yessir, you folks certainly have made a mess of this country.
You wouldn't have these ghettos if you people were willing to work.
Could I see some merchandise that the rats haven't found?
It's nothing compared to our shopping centers.

Finally. An English to French/German/Spanish phrasebook that truely reflects the mindset of the American tourist.
Posted 11:30 AM by whatley 0 comments

I heard about this on NPR this morning and now it's making email rounds too:

Believe it or not but 8.02 pm on February 20 this year will be an historic moment in time. It will not be marked by the chiming of any clocks or the ringing of bells, but at that precise time, on that specific date, something will happen which has not occurred for 1,001 years and will never happen again.

As the clock ticks over from 8.01pm on Wednesday, February 20, time will, for sixty seconds only, read in perfect symmetry 2002, 2002, 2002, or to be more precise - 20:02, 20/02, 2002.

This historic event will never have the same poignancy as the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month which marks Armistice Day, but it is an event which has only ever happened once before, and is something which will never be repeated. The last occasion that time read in such a symmetrical pattern was long before the days of the digital watch and the 24-hour clock - at 10.01am on January 10, 1001. And because the clock only goes up to 23.59, it is something that will never happen again.

P.S. No sooner do I post the above but I find some (slightly) conflicting information on another site: A moment that comes once a millennium
Posted 10:27 AM by whatley 0 comments

Sad news. Kathryn L. (Kate) Simmons (nee Katko), John's youngest sister, passed away last Thursday. The full obituary was published last Saturday.
Posted 8:02 AM by whatley 0 comments

An artist from Ohio is making waves around the country. Her latest installation is at the University of Wisconsin-Stout in the Western part of the state. A Public Artist, she has a permanent space at the Museum in Youngstown where her aerial forms, laser and computer-controlled lighting have been mesmerizing people for two years. She was also a part of the team that travelled to Egypt to light the unveiling of the Sphinx after its recent extensive conservation and restoration. Many of her works hang in private businesses and residences across the country. See Carol Adams' latest work, Aerial Garden X: Message in Wisconsin as profiled by the on-line campus newpaper. And for another review of the installation, go and look at the Dunton County News for February 13, 2002. There were additional pictures when the story was originally published, but they were not archived with the text of the story.
Posted 11:36 PM by Andy Allan 0 comments

Ever wonder just WHAT the marble-mouthed guy in the bad 8-track mix is really trying to sing while competing with the 4-chord flanger on lead guitar? Well, here's the chance to find out (sorta). The site Kiss this guy tells you everything you never wanted to know about what you thought they said. And it that isn't clear enough, wait until you look up the song whose title you can't remember to read the words never sung (er....sang....singed). What the heck. Art has a way of imitating himself.
Posted 11:09 PM by Andy Allan 0 comments

Happy Valentines Day Mookies! I have a V-Day present for you. Virtual Bonbons! And not just any old virtual bonbons as you can see below:

"How mysterious! What is it? Let me see, first!" And Belle removed the cover, looking like an inquisitive child. "Only bonbons; how stupid! That won't do, sir. We don't want to be fed with sugar-plums. We demand to be amused."

"Eat six of these despised bonbons, and you will be amused in a new, delicious, and wonderful manner," said the young doctor, laying half a dozen on a green leaf and offering them to her.

"Why, what are they?" she asked, looking at him askance.

"Hashish; did you never hear of it?"

Taken from "Perilous Play" by (hold on to your hat) Louisa May Alcott.
Posted 11:44 AM by whatley 0 comments

Would any of you have use for a 7393 chat room? I can create one if you'ld like. It could be a handy tool and even kind of fun, especially if several of us got on together. Those at a distance could save on phone charges too. We could make it open, meaning that anybody who stumbled across the page could give themselves a name and access it, or password protected. I'm a little leery of leaving it open but I thought I'd give you the option. Let me know.
Posted 3:38 PM by whatley 0 comments

The only way you'll ever get a man to do it: Extreme Ironing! Sure to become an Olympic sport. Speaking of the Olympics have you watched any? I haven't, but I did stumble on this site of a guy who works there and blogs his experiences. It's funny.

A couple of months ago the Chronicle had kids canvassing door to door in Elyria with a special offer for new subscribers. I took the kid up on it and from his reaction must have been his only sale of the day. Even though it's my hometown paper the Chronicle has never been a "must read" to me and here's why; the following is the lead paragraph from the same February 12th article on the high school bond issue failure, one is from the internet edition and one from the printed paper.

The internet edition : "ELYRIA — Voters probably would not have approved a new Elyria High School no matter where it would have been built, according to results of a straw poll conducted by The Chronicle-Telegram."

The printed edition: "ELYRIA -- A majority of readers who responded to a Chronicle straw poll said they would have voted for a new Elyria High School if it had been proposed for a location other than the south side."

Say what?
Posted 8:28 AM by whatley 0 comments

Last week, one of my co-workers in Lorain was fired for having "non-work-related or potentially objectionable" material on a work computer. The Corporate policy of "Zero Tolerance" comes to my back yard. We were told that someone submitted a formal complaint, and that it was substantiated within the guidelines of the corporate policy. I understand that there are subjects, topics, images and references that prove anathema to others, but the individual that promulgates those always denigrate her/him self personally, in my view, and it becomes my personal problem to present my objections and to try to bring about growth or change. The summary separation of a person from her/his means of survival is a business-based reactionary stance designed to reduce Corporate liability and vulnerability to legal action. The human be damned. It is supremely ironic that another leg of Corporate policy states that "Our employees are our most valuable resource." Who wants to be a load of ingot steel or a truck full of engine blocks?

So I wrote the following response to send to those who may vertently or inadvertently send non-work-related or potentially objectionable material to my work computer:

In light of the fact that one of our co-workers got fired last week for having non-work-related material of a potentially
objectionable nature on his computer, and due to the fact that the Human Resources person who spoke to us said that if we did not take action when potentially objectionable or unsuitable material was received, we were also subject to disciplinary action, I must ask you to cease sending potentially objectionable material of a non-work nature to a Company-owned and maintained computer resource. Please feel free to continue to contact me through my personal email and computer at myname@isp.com. Since the time, resources and brain cells I waste there are only my own, I welcome all potentially inflammatory, salacious, libelous, personally offensive, insulting, effronterous, defamatory, seditious, and, above all, intellectually stimulating, thought provoking, growth-inducing, evolutionary and educational material you see fit to transmit to my personal attention for cogitation and response.

I would ask that you place one self-censorious restriction on your transmissions, however. Do not send me any pornography in any form. I neither presently nor in the future plan to possess a pornograph.
Posted 12:27 PM by Andy Allan 0 comments

Another commercial perversion of the lingering wraith of Theodore Roosevelt, who celebrated the great Amercan Wilderness by hunting the creatures within it, and setting vast tracts aside so future wealthy public figures could have the same benefit.The World's Rudest Talking Teddy Bear for one low, low price!
Posted 12:01 PM by Andy Allan 0 comments

The Justice Department has posted a translation of portions of a version of the Al Qaeda Training Manual found by the Manchester (England) Metropolitan Police during a search of an Al Qaeda member's home. The manual was found in a computer file described as "the military series" related to the "Declaration of Jihad." The manual was translated into English and was introduced earlier this year at the embassy bombing trial in New York. The Department is only providing the following selected text from the manual because it does not want to aid in educating terrorists or encourage further acts of terrorism.

Some have said that this is a good way to allow the undiscovered members of the organization to obtain the information. After having read through parts of it, the "training" examples seem to be basic common sense, and things we learned by reading Sherlock Holmes and Nancy Drew stories when we were young.
Posted 11:55 AM by Andy Allan 0 comments

My first ever "letter to the editor" was published in the Chronicle last Sunday. Lots of friends that I've run into since then mentioned reading it. Do that many people read the letters section regularly or are they just doing so lately because of the hubub over the high school bond issue? I'm thinking it's the hubub. My letter was shortened by over 50% (bummer) but the editor was kind enough to email me his changes for my approval. When I submitted it I did include an intro paragraph to him asking for that consideration but I was surprised that he bothered, being that the Chronicle was so in favor of the issue and my letter was definitely against. He said he did because I mentioned it was my first letter and that he wouldn't have edited it at all but the volume of letters coming in mandated that everyone stay under a certain word count. Pretty nice of him.

Then last Tuesday I voted for the first time since the early 70's. It was a surprisingly good experience and made me rethink why I hadn't in so long. Wednesday morning I hit the Chronicle web site first thing to get the birds-eye-lowdown on how the issue fared. It didn't just get defeated, it got spanked. Wow. I must give good letter.
Posted 2:15 PM by whatley 0 comments

A random Airborne Adventure. Have any RBT'ers flown lately? How did it go?
Posted 2:35 PM by whatley 0 comments

Dopplegoogling
Yes, it's the latest Google craze, right up there with Googlwhacking. Actually, it's way older than that, and is an outgrowth of ego surfing, you know, typing your name into Google to see what pops up. If you're like most people, when you do that, you notice that, hey, there are other people out there with your name. In other words, you have a dopplegoogle. My dopplegoogles: #1 (a webmaster) and #2 (from merrie olde england). A good friend of ours has a dopplegoogle who seems to be, um, amusing himself (so to speak) and watching porn maybe? Just check the URL, you'll see what I mean.
Posted 10:19 AM by whatley 0 comments

"As history does its ominous U-turn, she watches quietly from a safe distance. This isn't her fight. And yet, when hatred hits closer to home, she reverts instantly from recluse to rescuer. When anti-Semitism and homophobia flared in her corner of Vermont not long ago, Pritchard fought back with everything she had." I'm in awe of this person.

And now for something really depressing: Just last week President Bush announced, "my 2003 budget calls for more than $48 billion in new defense spending." More money for the Pentagon, CBS News Correspondent Vince Gonzales reports, while its own auditors admit the military cannot account for 25 percent of what it spends. "According to some estimates we cannot track $2.3 trillion in transactions," Rumsfeld admitted. $2.3 trillion — that's $8,000 for every man, woman and child in America. In my opinion the depressing part is that we've been conditioned to accept this kind of thing.
Posted 9:09 AM by whatley 0 comments