Latest Articles
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‘Burb Your Enthusiasm
Commuting costs often outweigh savings from living in suburbs, researchers say The cost of commuting more than 12 miles often nullifies the savings of cheaper suburban housing, says a new study by the Center for Housing Policy. Low- to moderate-income families are often pushed to outer suburbs by a lack of affordable housing near job […]
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The Killing Fields
Study links breast cancer to farm work October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Think that has nothing to do with the environment? Guess again. A new study of women in Windsor, Ontario, found that those who have worked on a farm are 2.8 times more likely to develop breast cancer than those who haven’t. The […]
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Incentives in modern-day punditry
My brother called this evening to tell me that I was mentioned by name on the Rush Limbaugh radio show today. He was amused and delighted about it, on the theory that "any publicity is good publicity."
I'm more ambivalent. I won't say I don't enjoy the prospect of being more widely read -- any writer who says otherwise is blowing smoke up your ass -- but I can't say I'm entirely pleased that my renown will come from using an unnecessarily inflammatory analogy that did little but nurture the right wing's permanent persecution complex. I do a lot of work on Grist, at least some of which I like to flatter myself is thoughtful, occasionally insightful. But to thousands of people, I'm now and forever the guy who wants to execute global warming skeptics.
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A few choice bits from the hate mail that’s come today
A while back, I wrote this post. Senate Environment Committee attack dog Marc Morano highlighted it in a press release. Then it ended up on the front page of the Drudge Report.
Here are some excerpts from the emails I've received today (warning: explicit language):
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Suburban commutes are money-losers
A study of Washington and 27 other metropolitan areas by the Center for Housing Policy found that the costs of one-way commutes of as little as 12 to 15 miles -- roughly the distance between Gaithersburg and Bethesda -- cancel any savings on lower-priced outer-suburban homes.
More below.
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On climate denialists and Nuremberg
There are people and institutions knowingly disseminating falsehoods and distortions about global warming. They deserve to be held publicly accountable.
As to what shape that accountability would take, my analogy to the Nuremberg trials was woefully inappropriate -- nay, stupid. I retract it wholeheartedly.
More -- much more -- later.
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LEED is expanding to neighborhoods, and Doug Farr is leading the way
Doug Farr was heading into The Grind, a local fair-trade coffee spot in Chicago’s swanky Lincoln Square neighborhood, when he ran into Peter Nicholson, the organizer of the city’s monthly Green Drinks. The two well-heeled unofficial flag-wavers for the local green scene exchanged enthusiastic greetings, and began discussing the latest goings-on. Doug Farr. “Ugh. I’m […]
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Grist for the Military
Navy divers clean up coastal messes Navy divers are the latest crazy hippies clamoring to clean up coastal messes. For problems too expensive or vast for civilian government agencies to handle, military divers provide cutting-edge technology and finely tuned abilities — and in turn, they get to sharpen their diving skillz. This summer, Army and […]
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Axis of Upheaval
Wobbly earth may contribute to extinction of mammals, study finds Natural shifts in the earth’s orbit and axis correspond to the periodic emergence and extinction of rodents and likely other mammals as well, says a study published today in Nature. Researchers studying 22 million years of rodent fossil records in central Spain found that certain […]
