Ladies and Gentlemen, this does NOT qualify as an 'enlarged image'. It *might* have qualified as an enlarged image in 1995, but not in 2008. My screen is 1440 x 900. I expect something considerably larger than 380 x 380 (as this enlargement weighs in at.)
While I'm in the pet peeve arena, let me also just state that a credit card number without spaces is incredibly hard to read. It's also incredibly trivial to remove those spaces (and any other spurious characters) in the credit card number. OH, and don't make me tell you what kind of card it is! You can get that info from the card number itself. All Visas start with 4, all Mastercards start with 5. Want to know all of them: credit card info.
Originally posted on toppledwagon.vox.com
McCain 'resurrects' his call for a gas tax holiday. This is so unbelievably wrong. It's exactly the opposite of what we need. It might help some people in the short term, but it will hurt all of us in the long term. What will happen if gas prices decrease? Demand will increase. When demand increases prices go up. That's just economics 101. I'd even suggest that the price will quickly come back to where it is today. The people that it would help would be the gas station owners and the manufacturers.
What would help us is if we imposed a 100% tax on gas (I guess Perot was on the right track.) You must think I'm crazy, but hear me out. The proceeds from this tax should go toward alternative energy research. With gas prices that high, consumers will demand alternatives. When consumers demand something manufacturers create it. Long term, it's the way to go. Short term the world will be turned upside down for a lot of people. It could even plunge us into a massive global economic downturn. So maybe we gradually put that gas tax into place, say over 2, maybe 3 years. hmm, haven't has prices already doubled over the last 2 or 3 years? If we had imposed that tax then we'd have a lot of money earmarked for energy research. But who has that money now? Oil and gas companies. Do you trust them with alternative energy research? It might be better than the government dishing out the money. Point me to alternative energy research by oil and gas companies in the comments below.
Originally posted on toppledwagon.vox.com
I got notice that my building has ordered a 'green bin' for composting (as offered by the city of San Francisco.) So I've started filling up some BioBags with compostables. Then I looked in the trash. Most of it is various plastic stuff. ZipLock bags, plastic film, plastic packaging, etc. Now the question becomes: Why is recycling various plastic so hard? I'm sure that's a loaded question, but does it need to be?
I also found that there is a company developing a zip closed biodegradable bag. We live in exciting times.
Ladies and gentlemen: Recycling, composting, 'environmentalism' is not about saving the earth. The earth is fine. It's now about making sure that humans can inhabit the earth in the future. And every little bit helps.
Originally posted on toppledwagon.vox.com
I just saw a commercial for yet another toilet bowl cleaner. I don't get where these toilets get stained like that. Then they all act like it's the inside of the bowl that's hard to clean. That's not the hard part to clean. The hard part to clean is the outside. The condensation, the dust, (the drips). Why are toilets shaped the way they are down there? If they were smooth they would be easier to clean. Every toilet I've cleaned (and I'm a guy, so that's not a very large number..) has been difficult to clean. Why has this problem not been solved?
Originally posted on toppledwagon.vox.com
Which uses more fossil fuels to get to me, regular Pepsi or Mexican Coke? Regular Pepsi uses high fructose corn syrup. A lot of fossil fuels are used to grow the corn (specifically in the fertilizers) to produce the HFCS. But Mexican Coke comes in a glass bottle instead of the can. I'm also assuming that the sugar used in the Mexican Coke doesn't use the same source of fertilizer (and/or it doesn't need as much.)
Ok, maybe this is just wishful thinking. At best it's just transferring the 'real' costs of producing the beverage to me, the consumer, instead of the tax payer (because of the corn subsidies in this country.)
At least I can get the Mexican Cokes at Costco.
Originally posted on toppledwagon.vox.com
After today's announcement that the USDA is forcing the recall of 143 million pounds of beef, I went poking around. Why don't we test 100% of our cattle for Mad Cow Disease? Japan does. There is a slaughter house here in the US called Creekstone Farms that wants to sell their beef to Japan. As such, they want to do the testing required by the Japanese consumers. But they can't. According to this article originally printed in the Washington Post (the article seems to have expired from their official web site), the USDA said that they could NOT do the testing. It's not that they were trying to do it improperly. It's that the National Cattlemen's Beef Association was afraid that it would become a domestic and international standard for all beef!
On March 29, 2007 (my birthday!) the US District Court for the District of Columbia concluded that it is unlawful for the USDA to prevent Creekstone from testing its cattle for BSE. Of course, the USDA appealed that decision.
It appears to me that it is just a matter of time before this test becomes mandatory, either domestically, internationally, or both. The later this test happens, the more cases of BSE we might have to confirm. If they start the testing now I'm sure they'll likely find some. If they start the testing in a few years from now, they'll likely find more. After all, it's a disease. Diseases spread. Either that or they are trying to silently clean up the herd before testing begins. How likely is that?
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