Can We Build in a Brighter Shade of Green?

Herb Swanson for the New York Times

The New York Times had a pretty interesting article today about building passive house building.

Blow Out Preventer Minutiae

Agence France-Presse Getty Images

The New York Times has a very long article today on the troubles with the blow out preventer (BOP) at the Deepwater Horizon well that blew out in April. The article goes into what might have caused the BOP to fail and how engineers failed to get the BOP to work just days after the oil well explosion occurred. The article also goes into how the federal government meekly enforced regulations or just made suggestions in regards to oil rigs, particularly on the BOP topic.

Account of Deepwater Horizon Explosions

From the NY Times, source Dave Wilson

Here is an interesting account in yesterday's NY Times by some workers on the BP Deepwater Horizon drilling rig on the night of the explosions.

The Times have had a raft oil spill and safety-related articles yesterday and today:

Yesterday, an article on un-acted upon regulator warnings and another on BP's effort to contain the spill.

Today it's reported, however, that the containment effort had a setback. Also, BP has a history of oil spills and safety relapses.

Aaron Swartz on how to be productive

Since I haven't been too productive lately, I distracted myself with an essay on how to be productive:

HOWTO: Be more productive

Cancer is a Preventable Disease

Something to read...

Superbugs

I'm not much of a fan of Nicholas Kristof, but he did have a good op-ed in yesterday's Sunday Times. It was about the meat-borne bacteria that are becoming immune to antibiotics (KPC Klebsiella is resistant to all FDA-approved antibiotics). I wonder if Kristof was prompted to write this column after seeing Food, Inc himself.

Anyway, it's good to have more publicity about how dangerous eating meat can be with the way it's produced and that it requires so much in antibiotics. In the USA, 70 percent of antibiotics are used for healthy livestock. 14% for sick livestock, and 16% for humans and their pets.

My only quibble with Kristof's column is that he says vegetarians are vulnerable to antibiotic resistance nurtured in hog barns. He continues:

Microbes swap genes, so antibiotic resistance developed in pigs can jump to microbes that infect humans in hospitals, locker rooms, schools or homes.

I don't doubt that this is true, but I am very skeptical about the chances of that happening in comparison to it happening because of eating meat. These microbes can jump to carnivores too! Kristof is never one to rock the boat, and he seems to be implying here that you're no safer being a vegetarian than being a carnivore. In this whole context of bacteria, I very much doubt this.

Frank Rich on Barack Obama

 

Barry Blitt, New York Times

Frank Rich had a good Sunday op-ed on Barack Obama's performance after a little over a year in office. He mainly focused on Obama's leadership, or lack thereof. 

Official Food, Inc. Movie Site - Hungry For Change?

Official Food, Inc. Movie Site - Hungry For Change?

I saw this the other night. It's very good. It really make you think about how our food is produced.

Worrisome

 

Monica Almeida, New York Times

This past Sunday, the New York Times had a worrisome, if not scary, article on chronic joblessness in America. So many jobs have been lost over the last year and a half. It may take a very long time to recover those jobs, if they're recovered. I think people in some way will eventually get back to work, but the form and the pay may be very different from previous jobs (less on the pay). This article makes one motivated to work more just to hold onto what one's got.

President Obama Takes Questions at GOP House Issues Conference

Obama and the Public Option

Today's Glenn Greenwald post links to Ezra Klein's post about the question of whether Barack Obama campaigned on the public option. It's rather a question of semantics. Perhaps the public option was not a major theme of his campaign, but it or what was called a public program was certainly in his campaign.What's the difference?

As of today, what Organizing for America has for the Obama Plan includes a public option.

This is in regards to Obama's recent statement: "I didn't campaign on the public option."

Bill White for Governor

Bill White, former mayor of Houston, is running for governor of Texas. His campaign website doesn't mention it, but he is running as a Democrat. I guess White wants to present himself as non-partisan, but probably as well it still must not be politically safe to be proud of being a Democrat in Texas. Anyway, I'm glad White is running. He is a strong candidate with a very good record as mayor of Houston. I think he should be competitive against the Republican candidate, either current governor Rick Perry or Senator Kay Bailey Hutchinson.

The original reason for this post was to link to White's commencement speech to Rice University graduates in 2006. At the time I watched the speech on C-Span, I was somewhat moved by seeing someone so openly promoting public service. It was one of the most stern but also most inspiring commencement speeches that I have ever seen. I've been a stronger admirer of White since.So finally, here is a link to it. Unfortunately, I can't embed it into this post.

Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle

I was referred to this talk by a friend. It's quite an indictment of our capitalistic society that has become delusional about reality.