meta-roj

seriously.

i’ve been meaning to ask – did the tsa officially ban stingrays on planes yet?

i’m sure any faithful readers know i’m no fan of walmart, so it’s probably going to come as a bit of a surprise that i’m going to write something positive about the company.

How Many Lightbulbs Does it Take to Change the World? One. And You’re Looking At It. [fast company, 2006.09]

In the next 12 months, starting with a major push this month, Wal-Mart wants to sell every one of its regular customers–100 million in all–one swirl bulb. In the process, Wal-Mart wants to change energy consumption in the United States, and energy consciousness, too. It also aims to change its own reputation, to use swirls to make clear how seriously Wal-Mart takes its new positioning as an environmental activist.

go smiley. changing 100 million lightbulbs (and the associated savings in energy and carbon emissions) is probably the best anti-terror news i’ve heard all year.

the detroit free press had a nice labor day piece on median income in michigan and the united states, which included this [pdf] graphic of state-by-state data. since i’m not sure how long that will remain, i present a smaller version here:

and, for your convenient reference, the 2000 presidential election results:

great disucssion over here on the map. ladies and gentlemen, let the partisan fur fly.

update 2006.09.08: Based on a tip from jane galt via creative destruction, this map needs some help.

one thing that did concern me was the strange threshholds for the colors (that odd -5 to -5.9% gap), but that wasn’t really the point. the point was something more like the big economic picture across the country under this “republican” administration. anyway, since i now know i’m hosting bad data, it’s on me to fix the data, and while tables are great for economists and statisticians, i’ve got two maps on this page already. so here’s your new map (pardon the quick-and-dirtyness of it all):

enjoy.

update 2008.08.04: Salon wanted a 2000 presidential election map, and they picked the one used in this post (despite it being a real hack job). welcome Salon readers. enjoy your visit. feel free to look around…

mother jones gives us a [flash-based] timeline of the deceptions used to justify an invasion of iraq. days later, the united states department of defense sends a report to congress, which we find on the net via paul craig roberts.

i just had to put the two next to each other.

sort of a follow-up to this post

the good people at syracuse university have prepared a comprehensive report on the criminal enforcement against terrorists since the 9/11 attacks. you can see it here.

i’m not going to editorialize much on this, rather invite you to draw your own conclusions about how much safer we are in america (from terrorist attack), and how successful the “war on terror” has been.

i promised i’d address this at some level, so… here we go:

recently, the kansas city star came out with a story about hot fuel. their conclusion:

An investigation by The Kansas City Star has found that at recent prices U.S. consumers are spending about $2.3 billion more for gasoline and diesel this year than they otherwise would if fuel pumps were adjusted to account for expansion of hot fuel.

this story gets some traction, and there are others, like this one from the arizona republic, and follow-ups from the kansas city star here.

of course, this is just physics. things generally expand when they get hot. you’re buying a gallon of gas when you buy a gallon of gas, and not some specific number of joules (like 132,000,000). and all that makes perfect sense back when gasoline turned into the mainstream transportation fuel.

so it’s an engineering legacy that we have to live with, but not indefinitely.

today, it’s the subject of government investigations (see here and here for starters).

so, while everyone is chewing on this multi-billion-dollar heat surcharge collected by the oil industry, i have a couple other concerns to throw into the fire. this little tidbit of government-corporate partnership that brought you a 60-degree standard temperature for gasoline in the united states was established “nearly a century ago” in an era when government was… well, different. more transparent? less? it’s hard for me to judge. but what i do know is that today, the oil industry is not just agreeing to standard temperatures for measuring gallons of gasoline. they’re setting energy policy, behind closed doors, with an administration that won’t even disclose what subjects are being discussed. those investigations have been completely stonewalled.

so, missouri and california may lead us to a path of temperature-compensating fuel pumps, but will we figure out what other little deals and policies have been established in this business? did someone cut a deal to measure hydrogen by volume as opposed to by joule?

Bush Declares Eco-Whistleblower Law Void for EPA Employees [ YubaNet.com 2006.09.04]

As a result of an opinion issued by a unit within the Office of the Attorney General, federal workers will have little protection from official retaliation for reporting water pollution enforcement breakdowns, manipulations of science or cleanup failures.

…

“It is astonishing for the Bush administration to now suddenly claim that it is above the law, ” said PEER Senior Counsel Paula Dinerstein

no, not really. the bush administration has been acting as if it was above the law for… years.

the real question is: what ecological disaster does bushco have planned for the next two years that made this opinion valuable?

a quick nod of support to the good people at globaltext.org. i’ve got something similar in my notes from around 2002 or 2003, but i didn’t do anything because wikibooks did, sorta. this dovetails nicely with this recent bit:

Sun’s McNealy Leads Non-Profit Open-Source Drive [forbes, 2006.08.04]

“Math hasn’t changed since Isaac Newton,” declares Scott McNealy. So why, he asks, is California paying some $400 million annually to “update” grade-school textbooks?

basic education is too important to make as expensive as it is. knowledge is too valuable to limit.

don’t get accused of sexual misconduct in ohio, or it will go on your permanent record.

Plan gains to publicly identify accused [ toledo blade, 2006.08.29]

An Ohio legislative panel yesterday rubber-stamped an unprecedented process that would allow sex offenders to be publicly identified and tracked even if they’ve never been charged with a crime.

No one in attendance voiced opposition to rules submitted by Attorney General Jim Petro’s office to the Joint Committee on Agency Rule Review, consisting of members of the Ohio House and Senate.

there used to be a thing in this country called due process. i’m not sure when it got lost, but if you find it, please send it to me.