SiCKER (More SiCKO, That Is) July 10, 2007March 8, 2017 THE VIEW FROM UP NORTH The ‘excitement gap’ bodes well for Democrats. Or so concludes the Toronto Star. BREATHE DEEP But only in certain areas, according to this map. (Thanks, Roger, who thanks Alan.) MORE SiCKO Brad: ‘I am a practicing physician and have spent a lot of my career with lower income patients. Scott got his MRI done the next day because his insurance would pay for it. The doctor ordered it because he knew the result would come quickly and to cover himself for litigious reasons. The hospital was eager to do it because that is income for them. The majority of ‘pinched nerves’ do not require an MRI, they resolve with rest, analgesia, and time. Doing the MRI so quickly is highly unlikely to affect the treatment decision, so that was almost certainly another unnecessary cost to our healthcare system. But if you can get the test done in 24 hours and it doesn’t cost you or the physician anything, then why the hell not? Of course, it is difficult to get an uninsured patient a medically necessary MRI because of all the patients with insurance getting their medically unnecessary MRIs the next day.‘ Michael Irwin: ‘The empire strikes back (softly). [Here is a Blue Cross internal memo.]’ Ed: ‘I don’t know where Sam goes to the hospital, but clearly he has never gone to a hospital in a major metropolitan/suburban area. A six-hour wait is a bargain, and gurneys lining the halls are not an uncommon site in the US. As an EMT, this is a problem that I face almost every day. We have five primary hospitals surrounding our community within 15-minute transport times and two more within 30 minutes. Frequently, our ambulance crews struggle to find a hospital that is not on ‘divert’ or ‘bypass’ because no beds (that includes extra hallway beds) are available. Dispatch reports now come with the list of hospitals that are on ‘bypass.’ Sometimes, ER beds are available but no bed space is available in the hospital to admit patients from the ER. The ER doesn’t want the patients it can’t admit because they ‘board’ in the ER tying up ER beds. In winter, the problem is tremendously worse as people without insurance begin using the ER under EMTALA (Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act) as their primary care provider. Some of it is poor administration of the hospitals but a lot is inappropriate patients (uninsured) crowding the ER trying to get basic medical care. I’ve waited 20-30 minutes in a line of ambulance crew stretchers as the hospital staff tried to find beds for the influx of patients. This impacts our ability to care for our community because crews are tied up waiting in hospital ERs to transfer care instead of being available for the next run. This isn’t a problem just in my area but in many areas – and has been discussed frequently in the industry journals.’ Carl: ‘You shouldn’t assume wealthy Canadians are coming to the US for surgery and other care: when I was researching the issue of medical tourism last year, I discovered that many US citizens, as well as Canadians and others in countries with waiting lists for non-emergency procedures, had started traveling to places such as India, Thailand, Costa Rica and South Africa to save huge amounts of money, for approximately the same quality of healthcare. PS – The definitive article on what’s wrong with the US healthcare system, IMO, is Paul Krugman’s in the New York Review of Books, here (‘the evidence clearly shows that the key problem with the US health care system is its fragmentation’).’ From Paul Krugman’s column yesterday: . . . every available indicator says that in terms of quality, access to needed care and health outcomes, the U.S. health care system does worse, not better, than other advanced countries – even Britain, which spends only about 40 percent as much per person as we do. Yes, Canadians wait longer than insured Americans for elective surgery. But over all, the average Canadian’s access to health care is as good as that of the average insured American – and much better than that of uninsured Americans, many of whom never receive needed care at all. And the French manage to provide arguably the best health care in the world, without significant waiting lists of any kind. There’s a scene in ‘Sicko’ in which expatriate Americans in Paris praise the French system. According to the hard data they’re not romanticizing. It really is that good. So . . . have you seen the movie?
I’m Hurt! Call a Clerk! July 9, 2007January 6, 2017 MOWING YOUR ROOF There are several fascinating, encouraging items on the Climate Crisis Coalition news blog this month. Click here to see them (thanks, Stephanie) . . . especially the one about putting a lawn on your roof (can a putting green be far behind?), which would obviously not work for most homes – a house with seven gables, for example, or the house in Psycho – but could be terrific for the roof of the local Jiffy Lube, and hundreds of millions of other square feet. Environment Canada found that a typical one-storey building with a grass roof and 10 centimetres [4 inches] of growing medium [soil] would cut summer cooling needs by 25 percent. Other studies have found that a 15-centimetre green roof reduced heat gains by 95 percent and heat losses by 26 percent compared to a traditional roof. In Germany, which has apparently been pushing this concept for decades, 12% of the flat roofs are already ‘green’ – 3 billion square feet worth, which is a thousand times what have been installed in North America. PEDALING YOUR HOOF And in Paris, they launch this month an ambitious bike rental scheme that, it is hoped, will gain more in traffic and CO2 reduction than it costs in increased emergency room visits. Of course, in France, medical care is free . . . SiCKO Sam R. Linder: ‘In SiCKO, Moore tries to skirt the issue of rationing by going to a Canadian emergency room and finding that people have only had to wait there for 20 minutes. I don’t know what city Mr. Moore was in, nor what hospital, as I haven’t seen his movie yet. However, the Royal Inland Hospital in Kamloops, Canada, was a place where I waited in their emergency room for 6 hours without being seen by a doctor. If I had, I would have been charged $250 because I was a visiting American. The waiting room was full and people were lined up on gurneys in the halls waiting to be seen. It had to have been one of the worst examples of ‘socialized medicine’ I have ever seen. This country would do well to be careful of radically changing our system before considering ALL the implications. As a side note, I’m fortunate enough to be a member/patient of Kaiser Permanente in Oregon and have always received excellent and timely care.’ ☞ Radical change may or may not be an option in the U.S., but it seems to me a few big-picture ideas should help guide the discussion: One is that our system employs something vaguely on the order of a million people to sell and administer health insurance policies – not counting all the time doctors and nurses and employers and patients and hospital employees spend trying to comply. Could those million employees provide an even greater health care benefit if they were, say, nurses? Or do you sometimes find yourself writhing in your hospital bed thinking you have too much nursing care, too few people selling you insurance and denying your claims? Medicare spends about 3% administering itself; Kaiser Permanente, more like 17%; for-profit insurers, more still. Two is that we spend almost twice as much on health care as the French and the Canadians (although we live less long), so for all the flaws we may rightly find in the Canadian system, or the French, there may be some financial wiggle room to correct them. If the Canadians or the French spent more, as we do, their care might be even better than it is. Three is that it is complete madness that Medicare is prohibited – by law! – from using its purchasing power to negotiate low drug prices. (This is, of course, a Republican law that the Democratic Congress is now trying to change.) Yes, big drug companies need big profit incentives. But they don’t need taxpayer subsidies, which is what this mandatory ‘pay-top-dollar’ law effectively is. Four is that not everyone can go to the best doctor in town (what would all the other doctors do?) or have access to the very latest medical equipment (it takes time to build and install enough of a new device to serve the entire population). The two ways I can think of to ration health care are, first, on the basis of need; and second, on a ‘highest-bidder’ basis. In Canada, as I understand it, it is only the former that is used. Those wanting even better or faster care come down to the United States for treatment – if they can afford it. And in that sense, Canada has a two-tiered system without having to admit it. Realistically, America should probably have a two-tiered system, too. We should have outstanding care available to all, especially for acute health needs and preventive care. But we should allow those who want it to pay more to ‘fly first class.’ Private rooms? Private 24-hour nursing? No wait for elective surgery? On one level, it is undemocratic. On another, it is quintessentially American and can be a win-win. If I want to pay five times as much as you to fly to Chicago in the front of the plane (I don’t, by the way; I use frequent-flier upgrades), this is good for both of us. It makes me happy; and it makes the flight cheaper for you. (What it does to my carbon footprint is another issue for another day. Upgrades or no, I drip with guilt.) Five is that there are tremendous inefficiencies in the system which we, of all people, should be able to make more progress wringing out. It’s 2007, people. So I would like to see something like the Canadian system, but more amply funded for even better standard care – and the escape valve of being able to ‘go to America,’ as the Canadians now do, for private care. The two principal challenges, it seems to me, are, first: finding ways to be sure the universal ‘standard’ care is really good (which would include the simple pride and humanity of doctors, nurses, and hospital administrators, but also outcome-based incentives that reward improved results); second, and more difficult: finding a politically feasible way to get from here to there. Finding a way gradually to redirect a million people from clerking to nursing could be part of it. Licensing more med schools (and fewer law schools?) could be another. You really should see SiCKO and join the conversation. Your health – and the competitiveness of our economy – are at stake. Scott Nicol: ‘Haven’t seen it yet, but having lived in both Canada and the US, I can see problems in both systems. A few years ago, complaining of back pain, my doctor determined I had a pinched nerve. He called his secretary to arrange for me to get an MRI. As I was leaving the office, the secretary was on the phone with the MRI clinic, and stopped me to ask if I’d prefer tomorrow morning or afternoon. Can you take a wild guess at which country this took place in? The U.S., of course. In Ottawa, Canada’s capital, the wait for a non-emergency MRI is around five months. BTW, I think both next day and five months ridiculous. Both show poor planning, but in opposite directions.’ ☞ ‘Next day’ is fine with me if someone is willing to pay through the nose for that luxury, making MRIs a little cheaper for the rest of us. Just as long as that never blocks someone who really needs an MRI right now from getting it. Larry: ‘The Slate article referenced by Jim Hannah is refuted here.’ ☞ And very well.
Live! July 6, 2007March 8, 2017 PARDON Here’s the thing: if you’re gonna be the fall guy, you gotta actually take the fall. I’m sure Scooter Libby is a nice man who worked hard for his client and – many suspect – has loyally protected higher ups in the White House. You can see why they wouldn’t want him to serve time for serving them. But if the game is that, as President, you can do something really bad, get someone to take the fall, and then commute that someone’s sentence, you can basically just do anything with impunity. David: ‘I am a lifelong Democrat and I am very disappointed by President Bush’s commutation of Scooter Libby’s prison sentence. However, I am angry by the hypocrisy shown by leading Democrats in complaining about it. Where were they when former President Clinton pardoned Marc Rich during the last hours of his presidency?’ ☞ I hear you (and the many others who wrote with a similar sentiment), but I think there are two things wrong with this line of argument. The first is – assuming that the Marc Rich and Scooter Libby cases were equivalent – it suggests that when Republicans do something wrong, they cannot be criticized for it. I suppose in a ‘tit for tat’ situation that line of reasoning could be fair – I stole your cookie so how can I credibly criticize you for stealing it back? But the Rich and Libby pardons are two entirely different, unrelated episodes. It’s possible to be justly critical of both. But that brings us to the second point. The two cases are not equivalent. The Marc Rich case had little national significance, and one of the arguments that can be made – President Clinton made it – is that by allowing him to return to the U.S., the I.R.S. would then be able to go after the hundreds of millions of dollars in taxes they claimed he owed. If the I.R.S. prevailed, the taxes would be collected and our Treasury enhanced. And there were apparently other legal arguments on Rich’s side. Ironically, it was Scooter Libby who made them! According to this in the Wall Street Journal, Libby spent a year of his life trying to get Marc Rich pardoned. ‘Leonard Garment, who brought Mr. Libby onto the case in 1985, says that he believes Mr. Libby’s legal work helped set the stage for Mr. Rich’s eventual pardon.’ But even if you agree the Marc Rich pardon was a mistake – and it probably was – are the two cases even remotely equivalent? The Rich case had little national significance. The Libby case, by contrast, goes to the heart of the White House. His work for Marc Rich was a lawyer using his talents to protect a client. He was working for Marc Rich. But in his White House role, he was on our payroll. He should have been working for us. SURGE PROTECTORS Gary Thompson: ‘If you’re interested in a product that works better than all other surge protectors, I’d recommend visiting zerosurge.com. Even though they’re not cheap (I bought three of them for my home), losing a computer, plasma TV or other sensitive electronic device can be far more expensive. Their products have a 0% failure rate. Spend a few minutes and read their testimonials and customer lists. It’s impressive.’ ADOPT-A-CLASSROOM James: ‘I’m writing to ask a favor…to see if you could promote Adopt-A-Classroom on your site during the American Express Members Project voting. We’ve been picked to be in the Top 50 (out of 7,000) with an American Idol style voting to determine the winner on August 7. The winning idea receives a minimum of $1 million and up to $5 million. Here is why I believe our programming is particularly timely and critical: Now more than ever, in light of the most recent Supreme Court ruling that restricts the use of race to integrate public schools, it is critical for concerned citizens to focus on, and support our inner city schools, in order to level the playing field and provide much needed financial resources and moral support for inner city teachers and students. If each one of us were to adopt one classroom, the collective impact would be monumental. Teachers are in dire need of outside support to help their student realize their full potential and meet life’s challenges. To learn how to support Adopt-A-Classroom in the American Express Members Project voting, visit www.adoptaclassroom.org/americanexpress.” ☞ Sure: but what about cleaning up Lake Winnipesaukee? (If you miss that reference, you either don’t watch Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert – you are missing so much! – or you are even more ruthless in your TiVo commercial-skipping than I am.) Anyway, Adopt-A-Classroom is great, so if you vote for Lake Winnipesaukee, that’s okay – but then go and actually Adopt-A-Classroom yourself. LIVE! Don’t forget to watch Live Earth tomorrow, 7-7-07 (at 7, Central time, 8pm Eastern time on NBC).
Libby-rated July 5, 2007March 8, 2017 HAPNW Tina: ‘Please clarify the date extension for the warrants – you said August 31, but this says July 31.’ ☞ The executive I talked with must have misspoken. But if the S.E.C. takes longer to approve the proxy statement, the both sides would most likely just agree to another extension. RUBBER DUCKS They fell off a boat and have been swimming around the world – thousands of them – ever since. Click here. (Thanks, Peter.) PAUL BEGALA ON SCOOTER LIBBY Did you see this in the Huffington Post, commenting on how tough President Bush is? Tough enough to execute Karla Fay Tucker – and then laugh about it. Tough enough to sign a death warrant for a man whose lawyer slept through the trial – and then snicker when asked about it in a debate. Even tough enough to execute a great-grandmother who murdered her husband – after he abused her. A friend of mine at the time asked Bush to commute her sentence, telling him, “Betty Lou ain’t a threat to no one she ain’t married to.” No dice. Mr. Bush is tough enough to invade a country that was no risk to America, causing tens of thousands of civilian deaths and shedding precious American blood in the process. Tough enough to sanction torture. Tough enough to order an American citizen arrested and held without trial. But if you’re rich and right-wing and Republican, George is a real softie. As George W. Bush demonstrated in giving Scooter Libby a Get Out of Jail Free Card, he is only compassionate to conservatives. What does it say about America in the age of Bush when Judith Miller spends more time in jail over the Valerie Plame smear than Scooter Libby? BIDEN ON LIBBY Senator Joe Biden emails: . . . President Bush decided to commute Scooter Libby’s 30 month prison sentence for perjury and obstruction of justice because it was ‘excessive.’ Yet, last year, the Bush administration filed a friend-of-the-court brief with the Supreme Court in an attempt to uphold a lower court’s ruling that a 33 month prison sentence for Victor Rita, who was convicted of perjury and obstruction of justice, was ‘reasonable.’ The questions we should all be asking ourselves today are: Why is the President flip-flopping? Why does Scooter Libby get special treatment? George Bush’s disregard for the rule of law is truly unbecoming a President. I’m calling on every American to flood the White House this week with phone calls and tell the President, “In 2000, when you ran for president, you promised to ‘uphold the honor and dignity’ of the office of President of the United States – We’re Still Waiting.” Call the White House: 202-456-1414. DEAN ON LIBBY . . . ROMNEY, GIULIANI, AND THOMPSON DNC Chair Governor Howard Dean emails: Despite overwhelming public opposition, President Bush commuted the sentence of Scooter Libby, the former White House Chief of Staff to Vice President Cheney who was convicted by a jury of lying about a matter of national security. . . . Bush doesn’t care that Libby was convicted by a jury of his peers and sentenced by an experienced federal judge, and he doesn’t care that Libby’s sentence was well within the sentencing guidelines set by Congress. He once again ignored over 70% of the American public and disregarded the legal process — this time to help someone who has friends in the right places. . . . The Republican presidential candidates long ago lined up in support of Scooter Libby . . . Rudy Giuliani, who brags of being tough on crime, prosecuted perjury cases as a lawyer and wanted mandatory sentences on people who commit perjury. But yesterday he went out of his way to support Scooter Libby, saying “I believe the decision was correct.” In an interview with the Wall Street Journal editorial board he offered what they said “sounds an awful lot like an argument for a pardon,” and said “I think the option the president really has is commutation.” Mitt Romney [as governor of Massachusetts] never granted a pardon, even for the most trivial offense. But when asked if he would consider pardoning Scooter Libby, Mitt Romney said “It’s worth looking at that. I will study it very closely if I’m lucky enough to be president. And I’d keep that option open.” Yesterday he blamed the prosecutor and completely ignored the jury, saying that “the prosecutor knew that there had not been a crime committed.” Lobbyist Fred Thompson, the ultimate Washington insider, has helped to raise millions of dollars as a chair of Scooter Libby’s legal defense fund. . . . He also said that he would issue a pardon and claimed that Libby’s conviction was “a gross injustice … and it ought to be rectified.” No more. Democrats will bring dignity back to the White House in 2008, but it’s up to us to make sure that happens. Contribute today: http://www.democrats.org/FelonFreed Thank you for fighting back, Gov. Howard Dean, M.D.
Up, Up and Away! July 3, 2007March 8, 2017 HAPN – DON’T SELL YOUR WARRANTS These are the warrants to buy HAPN at $5 – if an acquisition it is finalizing ultimately does get completed. With the stock (HAPN) at $5.75 or so and the warrants (HAPNW) at 30 cents or so, this might seem to be like shooting fish in a barrel. As discussed last month, nothing is that simple. But for money you can truly afford to lose, I continue to think it’s an intriguing speculation. The deadline for completion of the acquisition has been extended to August 31 (and could be extended again by mutual agreement). The hard deadline for completing it is next April. So – as if for exit visas in Casablanca – we wait. And wait. And wait. SiCKO! Carl: ‘I saw it yesterday. It was like a punch in the gut. I’ve known most of the basic facts about the dysfunctional US healthcare system for quite a while, but to see these backed up by real life examples on film was devastating. I’m ashamed to be an American after viewing this film, because ultimately, it was more about values than medical care. If we can’t fix this, I have very little hope that we have the character to accomplish much else.’ Anna Haynes: ‘Saw it Friday night. Want Canada to invade us. They will be greeted as liberators.’ Denise Szczucki: ‘I am a doctor in NYC. I saw SiCKO this weekend. While the AMA may choose to burn my membership card for saying this, I now see how ‘socialized medicine’ (really public health care) could benefit the large majority of people, including most physicians. Which finger would I chose to reattach [given that under today’s system I might have to choose one or the other]? I would sacrifice my middle finger; ideally, flinging it at the people who made me choose. Thank you for highlighting this film.’ Jim Hannah: ‘This article in slate.com has the most thoughtful analysis of the film.’ SO, WITH ALTERNATIVE ENERGY WE MIGHT NOT BURN UP AFTER ALL Dan H.: ‘Stewart Dean expresses his concern that the discovery of abundant renewable energy could result in overheating the planet. I would like to reassure him by way of referral to the laws of thermodynamics. For a source of renewable energy to exist that would increase the retained heat of the planet, the first law of thermodynamics would have to be violated. Solar radiation converted to electricity can provide no more net heat than it would if it simply radiated to the ground. Nor can wind turning a turbine generate electricity which will eventually be converted to heat than would occur simply by the friction of the wind blowing across the earth’s surface. Fortunately to the best of scientific knowledge the laws of thermodynamics are inviolable, so we can rest assured that even if the whole earth was powered by hydroelectric dams, there would be no net gain in energy and consequently no net gain in heat. When water falls from the top of a water fall, some part of the kinetic energy released during the fall is converted to heat when the water hits the bottom. The net heat gain from the electrical conversion cannot be greater than if the water simply fell to the bottom without interruption. And at the top of it all, sits the sun, radiating the energy in all of these renewable systems. We could, of course, have localized planetary heating if we take our ‘stored solar energy’ out of the ground such as with oil, gas, coal, or nuclear energy and convert if to electricity and eventual heat. But the immediate heat from the sun can be harnessed to do useful work for us with subsequent conversion to heat, or it can simply fall on the earth and heat it directly.’ TOMORROW We had a DNC fundraiser a couple of weeks ago and I got choked up as the chimes were sounded to begin moving us from cocktails to dinner. (These were sound-system chimes, not tuxedos walking around; we are always looking to save money.) The chimes themselves had no emotional significance, but they were followed – loud, stirring, and conversation-stopping – by The Fifth Dimension’s rendition of The Declaration Of Independence. You are probably too young even to know The Fifth Dimension, and it may be hard to imagine singing ‘We hold these truths . . . to be self-evident . . .’ (not to mention all the grievances), but these words are such a touchstone of our lives – ‘that ALL men . . . are created EQUAL . . .’ . . . well, it is cut 4 on disk 2 of Up-Up and Away: The Definitive Collection, and it touches a nerve. And brings me back to the Sixties and to college and – well, I hadn’t had a lot of sleep, OK? Seating charts and all that. So I got a little choked up, OK? Why are you making such a big deal out of it? This country – as it has been and, we hope, will be again – is something to GET a little choked up over. Happy July 4th.
Which Finger Would You Reattach? July 2, 2007March 8, 2017 TED SORENSON’S SPEECH Jack Rivers: ‘I would love for the eventual nominee to make that speech. As we all know, it will never happen. Just like John Kerry should have responded to the swift boat attacks like Michael Douglas in ‘American President,’ but the consultants won’t let them. It makes me wonder why. If it sounds so good, and if Al Gore is so popular just being himself, why is that ‘unelectable’?’ ☞ ‘As we all know, it will never happen.’ We don’t all know that, at all. SiCKO! You’re thinking, ‘why isn’t Andy writing a full column today – what is this, France, with six-week vacations?’ But I’m thinking, ‘why haven’t you gone to see SiCKO? Better that I write little or nothing this week to avoid cutting into time you might otherwise have to see the movie. I need to know which severed digit you would choose to reattach. Write me!’
Sex and the CFL June 29, 2007March 6, 2017 SiCKO! Michael Moore’s SiCKO opens today. Run don’t walk. And let us know what you think. POWER STRIPS AND SURGES Emerson Schwartzkopf: ‘Cutting out a power conditioner is OK if you have a weekend house and the most important electronic devices might be a TV and DVD player. For people using their computers at home on a regular basis, having that conditioner in areas of less-than-standard electrical service isn’t really an option. Prolonged variation of the voltage can take a toll on equipment. And it’s not only a rural problem. I once spent an enlightening afternoon watching a multimeter reading of a previous home’s outlets. I reported the data to the local power company, which then tested area power lines and spent a few days replacing transmission equipment that one workman described as, ‘just about completely fried.’ Also, be aware that not all powerstrips are created equal when it comes to protecting any electronic equipment. I’ve had personal experience with strips that claimed excellent ‘surge protection’ and failed on the job. To get strips that actually work, you really need to step up in quality from the usual discount-store variety; several companies that make uninterruptable power supplies (UPSs) also make some pretty tough powerstrips. I’d never operate my desktop computer without a UPS, incidentally, even though it does consume more power than using a plain powerstrip. The energy cost to replace a fried computer in materials, manufacturing, transportation, etc. (not to mention the human power drain on my sanity), is far greater than the daily consumption of that little box that protects my equipment and my ability to do business.’ THE POT IS BOILING No, Mr. Smarty Pants, it’s the water that’s boiling. Which brings us to: David D.: ‘Alison refers to ‘The tankless hot water heater we bought was from Seisco.’ My question – why is a ‘hot’ water heater needed at all? I mean . . . if the water is hot already, why heat it?’ TRYING TO BE AT LEAST SOMEWHAT RESPONSIBLE Dave: ‘Everyone could conserve more. Despite the fact that I count myself as a conservationist, I too, have two homes. A smallish primary residence (1800 sqf, exactly at the median $ for our metro community), and a very small (700 sqf) second home. Yes, I could consume less, but I think there is more to life than that. So, we (and Alison) are doing what we can while still enjoying this too-short time we have. I, for example, just went solar on my (small) boat, I bought an electric lawn mower (savings that really surprised me, I should post more details separately on that alone), and we always take the most fuel efficient vehicle for the trip (the van when the whole family makes the trip, the car when we can fit in it). Not much, but as you say, I’m making an effort.’ TOO MANY PEOPLE Bill: ‘I remember you being on the board of Zero Population Growth . . . are you still? You may be interested in this article. All the things I remember you saying in the past are here. How can one go about getting involved in ZPG?’ The statistics are quite remarkable. For most of the two million years of human history, the population was less than a quarter of a million. The advent of agriculture led to a sustained increase, but it took thousands of years, until 1800, before the planet was host to a billion humans. Since then growth has accelerated – we hit 2 billion in 1930 . . . 4 billion in 1975 . . . 6 billion in 1999. Today’s grand total is estimated to be 6.5 billion, with a growth rate of 80 million each year. ☞ ZPG is now called the Population Connection, and although I’m long gone from the board, it’s definitely worth your consideration. We may well learn to sustain tens of billions of people on our planet and beyond – someday. But can we get to someday? Right now, we seem to be fouling our nest faster than we’re learning to clean it up. Not only have we added 4 billion people to the planet since I was born – which is a lot more people to fit into the one and only Yellowstone National Park or to visit the one and only Leaning Tower of Pisa (I put them on a par. It LEANS!) – we have also seen their consumption per capita soar, not to mention their toxic and nonbiodegradeable waste. And the fish are fewer (and more mercury laden) and the bee population has fallen off a cliff. Our lightbulbs should be CFLs and our next vehicle should get dramatically more mileage than our last. SOMEDAY – SHMUMDAY Stewart Dean: ‘You say, ‘Don’t rule out technological advances that lead to abundant clean energy . . . that in turn makes possible unheard of sustainable prosperity. It’s just that ‘getting from here to there,’ in the meantime, could be a bit of a problem.’ A new Fact of Reality, ranking with There is No Such Thing As a Free Lunch, that everyone needs to realize is that even if there were free energy, we would cook the planet in short order. Using energy ends up generating heat…which then builds up. One of the most direct learning experiences for me has been in the server room for my small college: I learned that you have to pay for energy twice. Once when you supply it to the computer, the second time after the electricity has electricked and is now heat….and you have to pay (the second time) for the air conditioning to remove it. More computers = more heat = more air conditioning. It doesn’t matter whether you use electricity for computing or making toast; It Ends Up As Heat. A computer uses 100 watt, a toaster 1000, but 10 PCs throw off the same amount as a toaster…and they run constantly. So. You have free energy… you’re still heating up the planet. It’s like having a house, but no way to remove the garbage.’ ☞ Fireflies. Cold light. Cold fusion. Sang-froid. You just never know. But I take your point. CFLs AND YOUR WILD SEX LIFE Stewart Dean: ‘CFLs in bedlamps are a bad idea. For whatever reason, activity in and around the bed can be physical, wild and unconsidered. I first encountered this when my 14 year old jumped me when I was lying down. That was 5 years ago and I had pieces of glass from the reflector incandescent in the bed. I did NOT go to a CFL since they are even more fragile and they have mercury as well as glass in their makeup. Instead, I have LED ‘light bulbs’ in the headboard clip lights. They are much more durable and just about impossible to break.’ ☞ This is crazy talk. Beds are for sleeping, the most restful place in the house. (And from their heft, I would think the CFL glass is actually thicker than that of the incandescents, but now I’m way out of my depth.) SiCKO! Michael Moore’s SiCKO opens today. Run don’t walk. And let us know what you think.
Ask Not Watt Your Country Can Do for You Ask Watt You Can Do for Your Country June 28, 2007March 6, 2017 ‘MY CHIEF POLITICAL CONSULTANT WILL BE MY CONSCIENCE’ Here is Ted Sorenson’s ‘dream’ speech for the Democrat accepting his or her Party’s nomination in Denver August 28, 2008. ALISON ON ALISON You will recall that a few simple changes are saving Alison and her husband about $800 a year, or 45% of their Connecticut electric bill. Some of you were outraged that they have two homes; others were pleased they’ve cut their usage nearly in half. I asked her to elaborate on some of her choices and their costs: Why Powerstrips? It’s a whole lot easier to flip one switch (usually with your foot) than to physically unplug the TV etc., which is the only other way to stop it from drawing power. CFLs? They’re more expensive, of course, but Connecticut has subsidized them heavily (and Costco and Walmart sell them). Not all CFL’s are created equal. The thing I care most about is the color of the light (the old CFL’s made everything look horrible). ED has good info on their website here. Water Heater The tankless hot water heater we bought was from Seisco. It cost about $700, but we get a couple hundred dollars off our taxes because of its energy efficiency, and there’s no sales tax on it in CT. It sits in the basement and actually takes much less space than our old one, as there’s no holding tank. Only downside: water flow is more limited, so we can’t all take showers at once, BUT it never runs out, so being the last one to shower doesn’t mean you’ll freeze. That seems like a good trade. My husband says that if we could have, we’d have used a more-efficient propane model (would require a major amount of work in our existing house), and that Bosch makes the best of those. Washing Machine The washing machine is LG. If I remember correctly it was about $800 but there was a $150 rebate, again for energy efficiency. As a side benefit, it cleans better and more gently than the top-loader, and uses much less detergent. Power Conditioner We also removed a power conditioner, a big power drain that used to keep our rural end-of-the-line electric current from spiking and dropping wildly (bad for electronics). Now that everything’s on power strips, that’s less of a concern. ☞ It would be a drastic change to ask people to give up their second homes. But asking them to cut their energy consumption in half? Little or no sacrifice is involved; indeed, it’s a good investment.
WiFi Make You Itch? June 27, 2007January 6, 2017 A CAUSE TO BELIEVE IN According to this, calls and emails to Congress are running five to one against expanding the federal hate crimes law to include hate crimes against gays and the disabled. The bill passed the House; but opponents – bursting with good intentions – are hoping to stop it in the Senate. Lest you think these fine people are going at the problem with a blunderbuss, they are not mounting a campaign to repeal the existing hate crimes statute; just fighting to keep from expanding it. Isn’t it great to know that, with all the other things that need doing, people find the time to oppose inclusion of people like Matthew Shepard, beaten to death for being gay, after whom the bill was named? EASY! You’ve probably done this by now, but I continue to replace incandescents with CFLs and I realize that here in my office, which I used to use 400 watts to light, I now do fine with 58. No sacrifice whatever. The bedroom is now frequently bathed in nothing more than 9-watt reading lights (equivalent, the package claims, to 50-watt incandescents) shining down over each of two pillows – more than enough to illuminate a book 30 inches below or to keep us from banging into things as we navigate the room. That’s 18 watts total, where before we’d typically use 200 or more. Which brings us back to our good friend . . . ALISON, AGAIN Carl: ‘Re: Dennis and Kevin on Alison – Geez guys, give her a break! Here comes someone with a positive message. Instead of the support and encouragement that we should give her, we slam her! Get a grip, guys.’ Allen Jones: ‘Such irrelevant, jealous meanderings! Yes, Alison has excess money and thusly owns a second home in Connecticut. That point is really moot. Alison is STILL doing her part. It really isn’t ours to judge the reason for this second home, it’s only Allison’s business. Kudos to Alison for explaining how simple it can be to cut energy usage in ANY home, first, second, or twentieth.’ Cynthia LaLuna: ”Green’ building techniques and research are often funded by the well-to-do until they can be scaled up, and priced down, for the mass market. Without such well-off explorers, we would not have green corporate buildings or residences going up all over this country – or be developing lower-cost, mass-market versions.’ Linda Tam: ‘I was surprised no one who wrote about Alison asked how much electricity she was saving? Sure she is saving 45% on her BILL, but I expect her power savings (and therefore her planet-saving environmental kudos) were less because of utility baseline allowances. At least with my utility bill in California, billing is progressive and that last kilowatt-hour each month costs more than the first.’ Christina O’Sullivan: ‘Have you seen carbonfootprint.com? Tell me at least you’ve gone to climatecrisis.net/takeaction/carboncalculator. I bet many of us unwashed masses have a carbon footprint smaller than Alison’s household. Unfortunately, if everyone in the world lived the way I lived, expending 3.9 tons per year, we’d need 2.3 planets to hold all of us.’ THE REAL REASON TO TURN OFF ELECTRONICS Bill Bruno: ‘Saving energy is a worthy goal, but saving your health is arguably more important. I’ve discovered the hard way about electrical sensitivity. Not only are those electronics using energy, they are also generating impressive magnetic fields and in many cases microwave radiation (even when ‘off’ or in stand-by). I’m a Ph.D. physicist, and I’ve measured these fields. It is thought that exposure to such fields (especially if you live near a cell phone tower – and these days who doesn’t) leads to the sensitivity. Here‘s a link on how one can survive this condition, but believe me it’s not pleasant. So turn off your cell phone, unplug your wireless router and anything near your bed. Use surge protectors and turn them off when not in use!’ SiCKO! Michael Moore’s SiCKO opens Friday. Run don’t walk. At the screening I attended, 1500 people were on their feet cheering through the entire credits.
Can Openers June 26, 2007March 6, 2017 GLDD So the stock got up above $10 last week, which put the warrants briefly at $5.16. But now, I imagine, an awful lot of people are – understandably – choosing to sell or exercise their warrants rather than come up with cash by the July 19 conversion deadline. (If someone bought 10,000 warrants at 40 cents each, that was $4,000. Exercising them at $5 each would require sending their broker $50,000. Many will prefer to take their profit and run.) As a result, you have what may be an interesting tug of two conflicting forces . . . and a different opportunity may loom. Tugging in one direction is the weight of all this warrant-exercising. The warrants are exercised and then, a lot of the time, the shares are immediately sold. Selling drives down the price of the stock. (Even if you sell, rather than exercise, your warrants, chances are you’re selling them to a market-maker who exercises them and sells the stock himself. I assume this is why the warrants now sell for a nickel below their intrinsic value. Basically, you give up that nickel for the convenience of having someone else worry about exercising the warrants. That someone else, if he does this for five million warrants, makes five million nickels without any appreciable risk, and even on Wall Street, every $250,000 helps.) Tugging in the other direction, I like to think, may be a mutual fund manager or two who see this old-line dredging company as an attractive long-term holding in which they’d like to acquire a few million shares. So they are thinking to themselves (maybe), ‘we are looking for this stock to be $15 in a year or two, and don’t want to miss the chance to buy it . . . but with all this warrant-exercising, if we play our cards right, we may be able to buy it cheaper between now and July 19.’ And we who own the warrants are thinking to ourselves (maybe), ‘we have to sell by July 19, but what’s the best time? Will the stock just go down, down, down until July 19 and then snap back on the 20th?’ And the fund manager may be thinking, ‘yeah, when the selling stops on the 19th, the price will snap back, so I’d better buy it on or before the 19th.’ And the other fund manager may be thinking, ‘if another fund manager might be buying before the 19th, I’d better buy before the 18th and beat him to it.’ So the first institutional investor may be thinking, ‘I don’t want to be beat to it, I think I’d better just try to buy 100,000 shares a day whenever it’s under $10.’ So you and I may be thinking, ‘don’t rush to sell as the price drops . . . it could well snap back by July 19th . . . unless everybody else thinks so, and it crashes on the 19th because so many people waited til that day to exercise and sell.’ So the fund manager may be thinking . . . And so it goes. But my point is that it might not be imprudent for someone who can afford to invest in stocks to place a standing order to buy shares at $7.50 or $8, on the chance that, at sometime between now and July 19, as this dance continues, you get some. Of course, even if you do, it could just keep falling. Stocks are risky. But my guess is that it’s more likely to be $10 or $15 than $4 or $5 a year or two from now, so snagging some at $8 could make for a nice investment. CAN OPENERS Stephen Gilbert: ‘Swing-A-Way? The world’s best can opener is the Rosle. It cuts through the weld (or whatever) that holds the top to the can, leaving no sharp edges, and accumulating no gook on itself. This is the Berkshire Hathaway (circa 1984, when I bought it) of can openers.’ Mike Maughan: ‘Huh? When you cook like a guy, you don’t use a swingaway. You by God use the P-38 on your key ring. What’s a P-38? Try this link.’ PAUL POTTS Nicholas Altenbernd: ‘Paul Potts wins! And here’s the finale.’ ONE Watch the video (Matt Damon! Bono! Bill Frist!) and consider signing up. It’s free. SiCKO! Michael Moore’s SiCKO opens Friday. Run don’t walk. This movie is going to be huge – and have a huge impact. At the screening I attended, 1500 people were on their feet cheering through the entire credits.