I really hate to say "I told you so"...

But all those people I've been writing to for years who have replied (when they've replied) that off-shore drilling is safe and necessary and that there would probably never be a spill or accident because the oil companies know what they're doing??? I told you so! I told you that yeah, they know what they're doing like the Captain of the Titanic, and it's too dangerous to keep temping fate this way.

Now we've got a gusher going at a rate of at least 200,000 gallons per day with a slick currently covering the approximate area of Puerto Rico (3,500 square miles+). The shrimp and oyster industry in LA and MS is completely ruined for probably the next few years, just as it was finally recovering from Katrina and in this economy. BP is saying it will continue spilling for at least another 8 days before they have any hope of stemming the flow with - get this - a dome that they're going to put over the site of the busted pipe (which, personally, I can't imagine will actually work), and another 3 months before they have a "relief well" drilled to divert the oil to another rig. We're screwed. And God help us if the oil gets into the Gulf Stream. Seriously, God help us because no one else will be able to at that point. Good job, BP.

I also think it's hilarious in a completely not funny way that our governor, who until recently has been a Republican, was against off-shore drilling (because most of the state is against it) until he was elected, then he was for it because it was popular in the Republican party, and now that he's an Independent because that's his only hope of being elected to the Senate, and this has happened, he's against it again.

I'm not particularly pleased with Obama on this issue either because he's been trying the impossible to do task of placating the Republicans to try to get them on his side way too much on these energy issues, saying coal, nuclear and drilling for oil is largely okay. The Republicans will oppose him, whatever he does, unless he becomes one of them and does exactly what the party line is. And even then they might oppose him just on principle. Best to tell them what Bush told the Dems all these years: my way or the highway. Because I do not agree with trying to placate people whose main motivation is money and power for themselves and their backers and the status quo because it preserves the other two. At all. I think it's all disasters just waiting to happen. And since the worst that can happen with a wind mill is a bird can fly into the propellers and get chopped into little birdy bits, I'm thinking that - despite the fuming of traditional energy corporations and the cost to set green methods up - it is the way to go. Seriously.

I love that man.

President Obama, you made me cry again.

The only thing I didn't like in that whole speech was the idea of new nuclear power plants in the United States and continuing to perpetuate the lie of so-called "clean coal." We are all aware (or should be) that western Europe is systematically closing all of their nuclear power plants as they replace them with green alternatives because they recognise that the risks of total disaster far outweigh the benefits when geothermal, hydroelectric, wind and solar generated power is so much safer, healthier (for people and the world), more abundant and will eventually be far cheaper than even nuclear power (you know, they have to do something with all that nuclear waste... it doesn't just disappear into the Great Void just because we'd like it to do that...). The "clean coal" lie I have addressed elsewhere and will not go into again, but really people have got to stop repeating this figment of the coal industry's PR people's imaginations. Continuously repeating the lie won't make it any more a reality than telling children about Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny or the Tooth Fairy make those imaginary creatures real.

Oh, and the Republicans? Can stuff it.

Because I needed another reason to hate Smithfield Foods...

So now they're probably in some part responsible for the swine flu pandemic. Nice one, guys.

I actively boycott Smithfield Foods products and all subsidiaries (and Paula Deen too... She's their celebrity spokesperson)... not that I ever bought all that much pork in any of its various forms, but now I'm quite conscientious about it.

For those who are unaware of Smithfield's dubious reputation,, check out this Rolling Stone article (be aware, there are graphic images) about the atrocious way they operate their facilities inside the US where there's supposed to be regulations to stop this flagrant corporate irresponsibility. God only knows what they do in other countries where health, safety and environmental laws (not to mention, laws for the humane treatment of animals) are not even up to our standards (which are obviously too low if Smithfield gets away with these things).

Smithfield refutes many of the claims made in this article (interestingly not my favorite part with the quotes from the guy who started the company about just how much he laughs at the EPA investigators)... However, it is interesting to note that due to at least one of the health concerns detailed in the Rolling Stone article - water contamination - North Carolina had enacted a moratorium on hog "concentrated animal feeding operations" (CAFO's or "factory farms") in 1997, which was extended repeatedly until 2007 when it was allowed to expire... Not that the moratorium was particularly effective. South Carolina, Virginia and Quebec have also passed moratoriums limiting CAFOs and the methods employed at such facilities, and I know that Florida has laws detailing the amount of room a pregnant sow is supposed to be allotted (so they can't be kept in crates barely large enough for them to breath in, forget about moving, as they had been until the referendum was passed). I honestly don't know what's being done about curtailing dirty hog farming in those states right now, but I'd be willing to venture the answer is "not enough."

SOB!

God damn President Bush and his cronies to Hell for this, if such a place should exist... which I don't really believe it does, but I sincerely mean that for the love of all that's Holy. Something that makes them sorry for what they're doing needs to happen to them, and since Divine Retribution seems more likely than anything else, I must petition for that. Look at what he's doing now!!!! And what the EPA is letting him do!! Stupid useless tool of the Big Polluters that the EPA is... People who work at the EPA, who are in charge of rubber stamping this, you should be extremely ashamed of yourselves for your betrayal of your purpose, the American people, and your children. I'm sure you're not at all ashamed, but karma will remember you, I hope.

Why can't Bush just sit on his hands for his last weeks in office? Surely he knows how much the country and the world hate him and that something like this will not endear him to anyone except the coal companies??? But perhaps I've answered my own question and Bush has fat retirement plans to get to courtesy of some corrupt indulgence from the coal companies themselves, if he just makes sure that this gets through while he's the lamest duck to ever be lame, huh? Idiote! (Because I have to link to something that makes me laugh... This post is otherwise too infuriating.)

Coal River Mountain update

So Massey has gotten approval for one of their permits. Just one... It's for about 195 acres of the 6600 that they want to destroy. Still, it is one too many, if you ask me.

And the CEO is crazy. Like... I worry about him if this is his world view crazy... He invented a new word in his tirade too. Check out the article and then go send a letter to the Governor of West Virginia to help stop Massey from destroying Coal River Mountain, k? Gov. Manchin is the only person who can really stop what they're doing, so let's put the pressure on, yeah?

Go make yourself heard...

Because he's awesome, President-Elect Obama has set up a website where we can all send his people our ideas about what needs to be done in this country.

Change.gov

Check it out!

Some talking points I thought important to bring up:

• Energy independence, but in a green way. No more mountain-top removal coal mining. No more lies about "clean" coal. No new nuclear power plants. Wind, solar, hydroelectric, tidal, geothermal - FTW!



• Agriculture - NO NAIS! Support for family farms, organic farms, local agriculture projects, education, etc. Down with factory farming!



• Reducing the amount of energy Americans currently consume. More efficient cars. More solar panels on residential, public and business buildings. Clotheslines available for everyone to use, YAY!

Coal is NEVER Clean...

This is yet another of my PSA posts...



Seriously... Even if coal could be burned in a way that is "clean," mining it and processing it are EXTREMELY dirty. Coal mining pollutes the immediate environment around the mining operation, causing asthma, cancer and other serious health problems in humans, as well as water sources, which carry the pollutants - including many which cause cancer and kill entire freshwater ecosystems - downstream where people are directly exposed without knowing that it's happening. Coal companies are not required to notify people who live downstream that the pollutants could kill them and their children or even that the pollutants are being released into their water. Coal companies are not required to clean-up their own mess. They profit (just like some bankers you might have heard about recently) and taxpayers pay for the clean-up, if any clean-up happens at all. THERE'S NO SUCH THING AS CLEAN COAL!!!

Promote and support wind, solar, hydroelectric and geothermal energy! Go here or here or here to learn just a few of the ways you can help.

Pass it on...

Food for thought...

If every American used a clothesline to dry their laundry instead of an electric dryer, we would collectively offset the amount of energy produced by NINE large power plants. ~ Source Project Laundry List

8% - 10% of the average American household's electric bill every month goes to running their dryer. ~ Source Project Laundry List

So do your part if you don't already and start line drying whenever possible instead of using the an electric dryer. It will save you money and save us all a lot of energy.

Clothes lines are easy to install and are inexpensive. Even the most elaborate will pay for itself in electric bill savings within a few months. Indoor drying racks can run anywhere from $10 to $100 depending on the size, what kind of wood it's made from, where it was made (look for "Made in the USA"!) and how sturdy it is. Some look like finished furniture and/or can be hung on a wall of a laundry room, providing shelf space as well as drying space. Most fold away for easy storage in a corner, closet or under the bed.

Clothes lines and indoor air drying racks can be bought at Walmart, most hardware stores, and online from places like Gaiam and Lehman's.

Existing fences and dense shrubbery (like boxwoods!) can also be used as auxillery drying space.

Clothes pins available for retail purchase in the United States are exclusively manufactured in China now. The last of those made in the US were sold last year. However, unused, second-hand and vintage clothes pins can be bought on ebay at inexpensive prices. (Seriously, you'd be surprised...)

I'm sad to say that of the 16 houses on our street, only 4 have clothes lines, including ours. However, two of those clothes lines - including ours - were put up in the past year directly due to the work of Project Laundry List. I love my clothes line.

If you live in an apartment or dormatory and you don't have outdoor drying space, but you want it, petition your landlord or campus authorities to allow for outdoor drying space on the basis that it saves both money and energy. If clothes lines are prohibited in your town/neighborhood, see Project Laundry List for tips about how to secure your right to dry.

Happy Earth Day, everyone!!

I didn't do a thing for it today today, other than tend the garden. But my mom is a science teacher, so she had a great ecological curriculum for today. She taught about the benefits of recycling, hanging laundry to dry outside rather than using a dryer, using reusable bags for groceries rather than paper or plastic, and how solar power works. She said the kids really seemed into it, and she was surprised by the number of kids who said their parents use the reusable bags and hang their laundry out.

Also all the public and charter schools in our county planted at least 38 trees given to them by the forestry service in honor of the 38th Earth Day. Nearly 6,000 trees (FTW! \o/) were planted between 11am - 12pm all over the county by kids and their teachers. Makes me all kinds of happy! The Guinness Book of World Records people were here to monitor the event, and the school system here now holds the record for most trees planted in a day and in a single hour. I hope this becomes a tradition and when they run out of space to plant trees at the schools, they can plant them elsewhere - places where there are erosion problems, etc. - and maybe things other than trees, like mangroves, sea grapes, and sea grasses along the bay and coast to help rebuild the estuaries in Tampa Bay and prevent erosion on the barrier islands, and go on field trips to study various ecosystems and maybe do clean-up projects. That would be cool...

Project Laundry List and National Hanging Out Day

Project Laundry List is trying to get just 1 million people in the US to sign a pledge to hang out laundry 80% of the time by April 19, 2008 (National Haning Out Day). You can go here to print out a copy of the pledge form and send it in.

End of the year prep

One of the big signs of the impending New Year I get every year is my car registration renewal forms. I got that today along with a notice that I have to get a new tag. Woohoo! Apparently, it's been 5 years since I got my car. Doesn't seem that long. Anyway, I figured since I have to get a new one anyway, I might as well get a "specialty tag," one of those tags with a pretty picture on it, which signifies that I've donated money to a particular cause or organization. They have them for just about everything in this state, don't know about others, but we've got over 100 of them now. More than half are for universities and professional sports teams, I'm sorry to say.

I wanted to get one for an environmental program. I was thinking of the Florida Panther or the Manatee or Sea Turtle plates, but they raise several million dollars through the license plate program for them every year. I decided on the Tampa Bay Estuary license because they've only sold 15,000 of them in the last six years and they sell fewer every year. Can't see why. It's a good cause! It benefits the Tampa Bay Estuary Program, an education and conservation program which has been working to clean up and repair Tampa Bay for the past seven years. They remove invasive species of plants and animals, plant mangrove and sea grass flats, and educate the public and get them involved in the conservation efforts. I figured, why help just one species when an entire ecosystem could benefit? You can learn more about the work they do here: http://www.tbep.org/

Oh, and in other news, I'm getting that spinning wheel. ::sighs:: I love ebay... Here's a picture:
I still have to decide how I'm going to stain it. It's solid maple and handmade in Ohio.

My day and a sad, simple truth...

Well, I had my Archaeology midterm today as well as a midterm paper due (though it's not officially due until Thursday). Proud to say I had it all printed out and ready to turn in at 4:15 am today. Class was at 2:00 pm. I think I did pretty well... Will know in a few days.

After I came home, I went out riding my bike. I got about 2.5 miles from the house and got to a treacherous bit of sidewalk. Live oaks on both sides within inches of the edge of the side walk, lots of roots tearing up the surface, about a 2 - 3 inch drop from the cement on both sides to the ground, and the sidewalk wove back and forth very quickly... Well, I slowed down hoping that would make it okay to get past it, but my front tire hit a weird bump, slipped off the edge of the cement and bam! I hit a tree. My basket is all messed up, and I've got scratches all over the left side of my face and left arm from wrist to elbow... And there's possibly a bruise developing from the side of my knee almost down to my ankle on my right leg. I saw stars... for a second I just hugged the tree and wondered if I had broke my jaw. I didn't, thank goodness. Odd thing is there isn't a scratch on the bike. And then I had to ride 2.5 miles back home. It sucked.

But then, I remembered that Jeff Corwin, of Animal Channel fame, was going to be speaking at USF this evening at 7pm, so I cleaned up, hurried to eat dinner and headed back to school. The lecture was held in the Special Events hall this time instead of the ballroom... a good call 'cause there were hundreds and hundreds of people there. A lot of kids, some looked as young as 3 or 4 too. I was surprised. Jeff talked about his travels and the things he's learned over the last ten years since he started doing tv. He said that the best advice he could give, before anyone could ask, was to find something you love and find a way to make a living off it. He said he decided he wanted to do what he does since he was 6 years old and got bit by garter snake in his grandmother's backyard... and he decided on tv specifically when, having just finished his undergrad work, he was asked by a documentary crew to show them around Bolivia, which he knew like the back of his hand practically because of all the work he'd done there and time he'd spent. He got lucky. It only took him 4 years of persistence and tenacity to land a show on Disney. The rest is history.

He was really nice, and funny, and patient with the little kids, and the whole point of his lecture was to raise awareness of species that are truly endangered... Not the fuzzy, cuddly ones that everyone likes, like pandas, but rather the ones that a lot of people wouldn't mind killing themselves cause they're afraid of them or think they're a nuisance, such as rattlesnakes in the southwestern US.

He's also quite upset, and rightly so, about the "reworking" of the Endangered Species Act. If you haven't already, read up on what the distinguished gentleman from California, Richard Pombo, has done. Here's his version: http://www.house.gov/Pombo/press/press2005/sept29_05.htm Really, it's a toothless excuse for a law and will allow developers and other rats to continue to endanger threatened and nearly extinct species (and this isn't the first time Pombo has, pardon my French, bent over for developers and self-serving "special interests."). Every environmentalist in the country knows this... but the vast majority of this country isn't caring about the environment right now. They're too distracted with the hurricane clean-up, and Iraq, and gays getting married, and their own problems... The environment is always there and yet not in their face, so they ignore it. And that really sucks of them. If you're one of those people, I suggest you get up and start writing your local newspapers, your elected officials, tell your friends and get people pissed about this so-called TESRA. Cause those 900 species still on the Endangered Species List was reduced by 4 last month because 4 species were officially acknowledged as having become extinct... gone forever, never to be seen on this good Earth again. And there will only be more, thanks to Pombo, TESRA, every single Congressmen who voted for it, everyone who supported them, and everyone who didn't fight against it with everything they felt they could do. The loss of those 900 species *will* be *their* fault, it will be on *their* heads, every one, and no one else's because when they were able to do *something*, *anything* to stop it, they made the selfish decision to pander or to be apathetic. And that's the simple truth.

FL lawmakers looking to close Green-belt loophole

Just heard on the local news that FL lawmakers are trying to reformulate a good 50-year old law to make it even better for the people of Florida (yay!!) and stick it to the developers who have been abusing it.

There's a law on the books here which gives working farms a tax break on their land, costing them $500 per acre instead of what it would be for residential zones. Well, savvy developers in the last G-d only knows how many years have been taking advantage of this law by grazing cattle in their construction zones before homes are built and sold. This means they can buy several hundred acres of farm land, graze as little as half a dozen cows that they have rented from "Rent-A-Cow" companies, and pay a fraction of what the land should and will be taxed as soon as the cows are gone. We're talking about land that goes for about $250,000 per acre. Economists estimate that these developers legally cheat the state out of $750,000,000 per year in tax revenues. The American Farm Trust and other such organizations are pushing for reform because they say it is unfair to the farmers for whom the tax break was intended.

On the other side of the issue is Carlos Lopez-Cantera, a State Representative from the Miami district, who is also a developer himself, and he (oh-so surprisingly) doesn't see what the problem is. Here's what he was quoted as saying to FOX13 News: "The developer benefits cause he gets a tax break. The cattlemen benefit because they have land to put their cattle on because they have no where else to go. And the county will end up benefiting as well." Yeah, well, there isn't a sentence there that I don't have a problem with for a number of reasons.

Let's hope that FL lawmakers will actually fix this law and close that loophole.

Homo Florensis and other amazing things

Went to an Anthro. department lecture at USF tonight given by Dr. Peter Brown, who identified homo florensis earlier this year in Flores, Indonesia. It was a fascinating lecture! I could go on and on about it for hours. The lecture lasted about an hour and half and there were probably three or four dozen people who stood through the entire thing because there were no chairs left... There were easily 400 people in attendance. They should have held it in a larger auditorium instead of the Student Union Ballroom... but I digress. Dr. Brown is an excellent lecturer, very funny and passionate about his work, and if you get an opportunity to see him speak at another university or organization, I highly recommend going! It was a lovely evening... He told us a lot of info that hasn't been published yet. They've discovered a lot of new info in the last several months, and now have 7 - 9 individuals at the Liang Boa cave site in Flores. He said the cave was continually inhabited by homo florensis and then later modern humans for the last 94,000 years up until the last several thousand years. They have a lot of history to cover, and unfortunately for thoroughness and preserving information, the site director bypassed all the modern human remains and artifacts and they went 12 meters down through roughly 20,000 years of deposition in 2 months of excavations. Their original goal was to find out info on the earliest modern humans or human ancestors who lived in Indonesia, their main goal being to hypothesize how and exactly when modern humans reached Australia... What they found was something completely different, as we all now know...

But as I said, I could go on for hours!! I have lots of notes, and I'll answer questions if I can.

I saw a friend from high school, Laura, there. She graduated the same year I did and has had the same kind of issues wadding through USF as I have so we commiserate with each other on that level. She's thinking of majoring in Anthropology now, thanks to a Biological Anthro class that she's taking right now and finding particularly inspiring. She asked why I was there. I told her about the Archaeology class I'm in and that I have a family member in the field up in the Carolinas. I told her about the Borough House too and all that's going on there... I think if there are digs there in the next few years, there will be a few volunteers from Florida helping out... Me, Laura, and Laura's friend Liz, who was also at the lecture, is seriously into archaeology, is an anthro major, and is looking for somewhere to dig next summer. I promised to keep them both informed. Very exciting stuff!!

Other cool things that have happened this week:

I saw 4 wild peacocks looking for food along Dale Mabry Hwy in Carrollwood this afternoon, during rush hour. They were all young males (they had a peacock's bright coloring, but their tail feathers had not completely developed yet).

On Monday, I noticed that they just opened a Whataburger on Hillsborough Avenue... It's the first one I've seen in Florida, and although I have no plans to go there, I think it's kinda cool that a place I had previously only heard of on "King of the Hill" is now in town.

Also on Monday, I saw a doe grazing in the planned community "Westchase." It was about 200 feet in from Sheldon Road, a fairly busy four-lane road in the western part of Hillsborough County, near a man-made pond in a clearing on the other side of a densely wooded area from the street. She was beautiful, a grayish kind of bown and white... She perked her head up for a second when I looked over at her and then went back to munching on grass. It was really cool...

continuing strange

I'm continuing to work on my knitting projects. I haven't finessed any of them yet. I need to photograph the baby hat, the cloth hobo bag and the off-the-shoulder sweater that I've made for the knitty.com calender contest. Three photos are due by the end of the month, so I really don't have much time, but with 1-hour photo, I have enough... As long as I get film tomorrow and get the pictures back by the next day, I'll be fine. They want real photos of knitted items from patterns on their site... and by "real," I mean "fine art." I really like that idea. And thanks to Adobe PhotoShop 6.0, I'll be able to get them to look exactly like I want them to look without processing and printing them myself. Yay!! So that's my # 1 priority for today.

Priority #2 is getting some of the peanuts harvested. There are several plants that are ready. The rest of them need to be fertilized. Thankfully, they have been doing well this season. ::fake spit, fake spit:: (Don't want to jinx it.) Apparently, we have ideal soil for them... Strange when it's not ideal for almost anything else. Usually have to amend it like crazy! It drains just fine, but doesn't have enough organic material... little too sandy. But peanuts like sandy, so I like growing peanuts.

The roses are also doing much better. The rain still comes in the very late afternoon almost everyday, but the fungicide finally seems to be controlling it. The okra is another matter. We're pretty sure it's got some sort of blight. And the eggplants are right next to the okra... For some reason, they aren't putting on any fruit though. We can't figure out why. The leaves are all perfectly green and healthy looking. They'll get flowers every week or so, but the fruit just isn't taking. Strange, because they usually do better in hot weather according to Mom. If anyone has any idea as to what's going on, I'd surely appreciate any info you have.

I really feel for people living further north who are getting the disgustingly hot weather that we usually have to contend with here. Whether humidity is at 0%, 50% or 100% (which doesn't always mean it's raining, contrary to popular belief... The humidity has been at 100% for days before without any rain, just air as thick as pea soup), 95 degrees F is still hotter than hell. And 103, oh, forget about it and just stay inside! It's ridiculous, this weather. Some say it's because of global warming... I don't think I buy it. 1.) We're in a cold period for the earth's history... still crawling out of the last ice age, really. 2.) We really don't have enough data to prove that it's due to green-house gases that temperatures are rising, which fluctuate naturally over time. 3.) The 13th century had weird weather patterns similar to those we're experiencing now. On the other hand, 4.) There is more CO2 being deposited in glacial ice now than there has been in the last 2.5 million years... in fact, it's exactly double it's highest concentration in that period. We've been on an exponential upswing for the last 10,000 years (or was it 100,000?... something like that anyway), but around industrialization, CO2 reached the highest 2.5 million year level, and at present has surpassed it by 100%. Worrisome, but at the same time, I'm not particularly worried... We're likely worrying over something we can't do a thing about, and certainly nothing quick. Now, this is not to say that I don't fully support that cars and factories should be cleaner... Just because I don't buy that it's a long-term problem, doesn't mean that I don't think it's a short-term one. I certainly think we could improve world health if we cut down on fossil fuels or eliminated them entirely. I just don't think that it would significantly impact global warming.

My goodness, that was a tangent!

Anyway, here in Tampa, we have the rains almost every afternoon, but it doesn't cool anything down significantly, just keeps enough moisture in the air to prevent it from getting hotter than it already does... and of course, encourages the mosquitoes to breed like mad. I want to put a bat house out on the back part of our property to get them to stay around and eat the mosquitoes, but Mom seems to think that's a bad idea. She doesn't like bats, but I know we have them around here anyway. Every evening there will be at least 4 or 5 flying around directly above the house snapping up mosquitoes as fast are their radar can find them. I like bats. As far as I'm concerned, they can stay. And soon we'll have even more because I'm planting a banana tree... somewhere. We haven't picked out a spot yet, but it's sitting out on the front walk right now. According to what I've heard, if it weren't for fruit bats, banana trees wouldn't be able to pollinate. So yay for them!

Priority #3 for the day is continuing to organize my room because Josh is coming home from Los Angeles next week and I can't continue using his room as my personal storage space. And priority #4 is planting the roses that are potted, the banana tree and a hydrangea that I got at Home Depot 2 months ago (It's doing quite well evenso.) I probably won't get around to that until later in the week though.