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Amusing

From Overheard at the Office:

Employee #1: It's them damn environmentalists that make the gas prices so high.

Employee #2: Yeah, those morons won't let us drill for oil anywhere. They're what's wrong with this country.

Employee #1: Yeah, them and the French.

North 6th Street
Gainesville, Florida

Overheard by: Environmentalist

Diversity is strength

What is environmentalism? If you ask five people you may get five distinct answers. Some think this is a big problem; I disagree.

Italian smog gets eaten

It sounds almost too good to be true, but an Italian cement manufacturer has managed to develop a pollution-degrading concrete. The technology, dubbed "TX Active," breaks down air pollutants such as carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxide, benzene, and others through a natural chemical process called photocatalysis.

In areas where streets have been repaved with the compound, nitric oxides have been measured at 45-60% below normal. And in addition to being good for the ambient air, TX Active building facades stay gleaming white longer -- since the compound breaks down pollutants, it also prevents grimy buildup.

A report

I'm here in San Francisco at the Green Festival -- billed as the world's largest green expo. The San Fran convention center is packed to the rafters with booths, booths, booths.

It is somewhat verboten to say so these days, but the predominant vibe is still distinctly hippie. (As I wrote that, a small troop of people wandered by playing drums and tooting on flutes.) Dreadlocks abound. Tofu products are ubiquitous. The word "spirit" is deployed with alarming frequency. There's batik and tie-dye and didgeridoo honking and so forth. It's like an enormous Grateful Dead parking lot.

Boxer kicks out Inhofe as Senate Environment committee chair

Democratic victory in the mid-term elections means that Barbara Boxer of California will replace James Inhofe of Oklahoma as the chair of the Senate Environment and Public Works committee. According to Katrina Van Heuvel of The Nation, yesterday Boxer said:

"He thinks global warming is a hoax and I think it is the challenge of our generation. We have to move on it."

Voters like or don’t like, nothing more complicated than that

Amanda's article is good, but I tend to think that pundits and politicians vastly overinterpret election results. Everyone tries to figure out what "message" voters were sending, and just about everyone tends to find a message that, surprise, lines up with their own political predilections. For my part, I think the Dem victory on Tues. was a clear message from voters that I deserve a raise.

Really, though, I suspect the general public sends one of two messages in any given election: "eeennnh" (displeased) or "eh" (disinterested). Any interpretation beyond that tends to do little but reflect the interpreter's filter.

Dem wins good news for ethanol industry

Not all investors, CEOs, and lobbyists were sad to see the GOP lose on Tuesday. From Bloomberg:

Shares of Archer Daniels Midland Co. and VeraSun Energy Corp., the two biggest U.S. ethanol producers, soared on speculation that Democratic control of the U.S. House of Representatives will boost demand ...

"A Democrat-led House is likely to amount to a political net plus for the ethanol industry," Stanford Group Co. analyst Mark McMinimy wrote today in a report to clients. "The political climate for ethanol in the Congress will shift from an environment that was already favorable to one that is promising for ethanol-friendly legislation over the coming two years."

In Toilets Is the Preservation of the World

U.N. study illuminates deadly global water and sanitation situation Some say the world will end in fire, some say in ice — but it’s more likely to be lack of access to clean water that does us in. A U.N. report says dirty water is the second-leading cause of death among children around the world, […]

Public should think twice about biofuels

The annual forest and biodiversity clearing exercise in Indonesia is drawing to a close. Here's an article telling us that a thousand or so orangutans were burned to death this time around.

Every year, year after year, like a broken record or a slow motion horror movie, we sit around reading articles describing the extinction of the wild orangutan and other unique lifeforms. We human beings have just got to scratch that itch, that insatiable urge to increase one's wealth, position, rank, standing, station, prestige, fame, prominence, distinction, importance, renown, influence, eclat, celebrity, esteem, glory, status, whatever.

Early indication: Agribiz still rules the Hill

There's no denying the joy of seeing such confirmed villains as Pombo, Santorum, and Rumsfeld on ice. (It will be interesting to see which energy/military conglomerate beckons home the latter after his brave tour of duty.) But having delivered a decisive boot to the hindquarters of the GOP-controlled Congress, it's time to turn a critical eye on the new leadership.