Permalink  Posted by Doc Opp  Uncategorized  2 Responses »
Jul 302010
 

I’d like to point out a series of odd coincidences, that I haven’t observed anybody else commenting on. In the past few months:

1) As everybody is aware, there was an explosion at an oil rig and catastrophic oil leak at a BP platform, causing great damage to the gulf of Mexico.

2) A ruptured pipeline causes a massive oil spill in a river that leads to lake Michigan, causing environmental damage, and (unless contained) will cause serious problems to one of the world’s largest freshwater lakes.

3) A pipeline explosion in China causes the largest oil spill in history for that country (larger than Exxon Valdez), creating tremendous environmental damage to China’s already polluted water.

4) An oil rig sinks in Nigeria dumping oil into Nigerian waters and killing millions of fish.

5) A Japanese oil tanker is the subject of a mysterious explosion – no other ships, subs or missiles are detected, nobody can explain what happened, and had it been a little bigger, there would have been another massive spill.

I don’t believe I’ve ever seen more than 1 major oil spill in a given year before. So, what explains the sudden prevalence? Continue reading »

Determining A Man’s Worth

 Posted by Mike  Abuse of Power, Disasters and Tragedies, Environment  4 Responses »
Jul 272010
 

How much money should a person make?

For most people, it’s a moot concept. For most white collar workers, the free market (in some loose sense) determines how much we get paid, perhaps marked up or down somewhat depending on a person’s negotiation skills. For most blue collar workers, their wages are determined by collectively bargained contracts. For the working poor, their wages are determined by the federal or state imposed minimum wage, or perhaps in some case by a minimum payment necessary to keep the employee fed and motivated.

But there are a lucky few people out there who get to set their own salaries, who don’t have to worry about the vagaries of the free market or collective bargaining. In particular, there are two news stories today that prompted the question I began with.
Continue reading »

RIP French Vanilla

 Posted by Doc Opp  Uncategorized  1 Response »
Jul 182010
 

Baskin Robbins has decided to discontinue the classic flavor French Vanilla.

Dear friend, you were the source of so much joy in rootbeer floats, hot fudge sundaes, and just on your own (although I tended for mint chip when just getting a single scoop). Know that you will live on in our memories, and that we will honor your memory by continuing to eat copious amounts of ice cream even in your absence. You were a legend, and a classic, and we are honored to have known you.

(P.S. Yes, Leftfielder has an obituary for French Vanilla Ice Cream, but didn’t have one for Senator Byrd. Blame Mike – that sort of thing is clearly his responsibility).

It’s a MAD World

 Posted by Mike  Nuclear Weapons, Terrorism  4 Responses »
Jul 152010
 

There is an interesting opinion piece today by Timothy Egan on nytimes.com about mutually assured destruction (MAD). MAD is a Cold War era policy that says essentially “if you nuke our cities, we promise to nuke your cities”.

Egan assumes, like many people do, that MAD kept us safe during the Cold War. But he criticizes the Pentagon for continuing to rely on MAD in an era where the greatest threats to United States security are terrorist organizations:
Continue reading »

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