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It’s just funny

Call me a junior high boy, but the fact that the Zurich-based Shahneshin Foundation is giving Shrinkage Awards makes me giggle. Who are they going to give them out to? SUV drivers? Polar bears?

Umbra on phosphates in detergents

Dear Umbra, Why haven’t phosphates been removed from dishwashing detergents like they have been from laundry detergents? I know they make your clothing look brighter, but what do they do for dishes? Natalie Waddell-Rutter North East, Pa. Dearest Natalie, Phosphates in dish detergent do a few nice things for dishwasher-washed dishes. Their biggest contribution is […]

It’s out

... is out.

More later.

Update [2006-9-20 14:58:15 by David Roberts]: You can see the full plan here.

Damn those activist judges!

Here's some big, breaking news. Reports AP:

A federal judge on Wednesday reinstated a ban on road construction in nearly a third of national forests, overturning a Bush administration rule that allowed states to decide how to manage individual forests.

U.S. District Judge Elizabeth Laporte sided with states and environmental groups that sued the U.S. Forest Service after it reversed President Clinton's 2001 "Roadless Rule" that prohibited logging, mining and other development on 58.5 million acres in 38 states and Puerto Rico.

In May last year, the Bush administration replaced the Clinton rule with a process that required governors to petition the federal government to protect national forests in their states.

Laporte said the process violated federal law because it didn't require necessary environmental studies.

...

"This is fantastic news for millions of Americans who have consistently told the forest service that they wanted these last wild areas of public land protected," said Kristen Boyles, an attorney for Earthjustice, one of the groups that filed the lawsuit in October 2005.

Stay tuned for more ...

Don’t call me Ishmael, I’ll call you

Recently, on the prompting of our own recently wed Sarah Kraybill Burkhalter, I read Daniel Quinn's Ishmael. For those of you not familiar, Ishmael is an influential novel recounting a series of conversations between a man and, well, a telepathic gorilla. Many environmentalists consider it a formative work. (As I was reading it on the bus a girl next to me pointed wide-eyed and said, "I love that book!" Her friend nodded and murmured, "it changes your life.") There is a longstanding web community centered around it.

I want to tread somewhat carefully. In the review quoted on the book's cover, some guy says he will divide the books he's read in his life into two categories, those he read before Ishmael and those he read after. There was a time in my life when several books had that effect on me. I guess it started with the works of Tom Robbins (on which I wrote my undergrad thesis), and continued through Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. There was the Illuminatus Trilogy and other Robert Anton Wilson stuff. A bunch of stuff by the Beats. Several things by Timothy Leary. Just about everything by Alan Watts. The Tao of Physics. That kind of thing. All the hippie classics.

I Say Good Day to You, Sir

Brit scientists tell Exxon to stop the poppycock and folderol In a highly unusual move, Britain’s top scientific body earlier this month sent a letter to ExxonMobil — since leaked to the press — calling on the oil giant to stop lying … er, misrepresenting the science of climate change, and to stop funding other […]

Try Me a River

Mississippi River may be redirected to build Louisiana wetlands How to protect and restore the Louisiana coast? A group of researchers has a crazy idea that just might work: shift the course of the Mississippi River. Every half hour or so, the Mississippi steals a football-field-sized chunk of soil from Louisiana’s coastal wetlands; it dumps […]

What the Fuqua?

Emails show that Bush administration micromanaged scientist interviews Emails obtained through the Freedom of Information Act show that the Bush administration micromanaged media requests for interviews with climate scientists after Hurricane Katrina, aiming to downplay the influence of global warming. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration press officers were required to get clearance from the Dept. […]

Ignorance is Remiss

U.S. EPA not conducting environmental-justice reviews In a sharp break with the rest of the Bush administration’s focus — no, obsession — with social and economic justice, the U.S. EPA has failed to conduct environmental-justice reviews to make sure low-income and minority neighborhoods get equal eco-protection to other communities. The reviews have been required since […]

I hate typing that exclamation point

Al Gore's Current TV has partnered with Yahoo! to create Yahoo! Current Network. This will definitely increase Current's exposure to the treasured Young Affluent Dynamic Online (YODA) crowd.