Author Archives: Jon

Sequestration illuminates absence of long-term, coherent risk policies

Our national policy for disaster recovery and rebuilding – putting aside, for the moment, risk assessment, mitigation, planning, and response – is effectively no policy. We make it up as we go along.  Did victims of terrorism on September 10, 2001, or beforehand receive compensation? Did airlines before 9/11 get special legislation absolving them of liability? Even assuming that there is a legitimate question about the etiology of Ground Zero responders’ illnesses, wouldn’t a reasonable and compassionate country willingly support dying and seriously ill responders and their families – rather than stalling, essentially starving them out? James Zadroga,   The James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act allocated $4.2 billion to create the World Trade Center Health Program; the legislation was signed in January 2011; Zadroga died in January, 2006.  Then, as now, partisan legislative politics delayed the matter.

 

Reuters: “First spill trial witness: BP put cost cuts over safety”

The oil slick in the gulf

Deepwater Horizon Oil Slick, May 10, 2010.

From Reuters reporting on the BP oil spill trial;  First spill trial witness: BP put cost cuts over safety.

BP Plc fostered a culture that put cost-cutting over safety before the deadly 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill, a noted forensic engineer said in the first day of testimony in the federal civil trial centered on the disaster. “There is ample evidence of intense pressure within the system to save time and money,” said Bob Bea, co-founder of the Center for Catastrophic Risk Management at the University of California, Berkeley. “With stress and pressure come sacrifices to safety.” Bea was the first witness for the plaintiffs, the U.S. Justice Department and U.S. Gulf Coast states suing Macondo well owner BP, rig owner Transocean Ltd and well cement provider Halliburton Co. The plaintiffs plan to call Lamar McKay, chairman and president of BP America, to testify as a hostile witness once Bea wraps up. McKay is a member of the London-based oil company’s executive committee, alongside Chief Executive Officer Bob Dudley.

Bear in mind that this was filed after the first day of a long trial. (We think we found access to transcripts at MDL 2179 Trial Docs and Plaintiffs Steering Committee, and provide better daily coverage). It’s likely that things will look worse for BP before they look better.  Of course, there is the possibility that BP, in cross-examining witnesses, and putting on its own case, will be able to demonstrate that that its conduct was entirely proper and honorable.

And also bear in mind that oil gushed into the Gulf of Mexico at the rate of 60,000 barrels per day for 85 days; an approximate total of 5,100,000 barrels of crude oil.

—

Jonathan Soroko, Esq, is an attorney and an investigative consultant. In addition to writing for Popular Logistics, he writes for Caton Ave and Discovery Strategist blog, where this is posted.

—

Popular Logistics Series on the Deepwater Horizon / Macondo Spill

  1. Fossil Fuels and a Walk on the Moon, May 3, 2010.
  2. Drill Baby Drill or Drill Baby Oops, May 7, 2010.
  3. The Magnitude of the Spill, May 15, 2010.
  4. One Month After The Spill BP Siphoning 3,000 Barrels Per Day, May 20, 2010.
  5. Deep Water Horizon – The Chernobyl of Deepwater Drilling?, June 2, 2010.
  6. The Deepwater Horizon: 40,000 Barrels Per Day or 70,000, June 13, 2010.
  7. The Deepwater Horizon After the Macondo Well Explosion, June 19, 2010.
  8. Deepwater Horizon – Bombs and Hurricanes, July 1, 2010,
  9. Like a Bad High School Math Problem, July 14, 2010,
  10. Crisis Management and the Gulf Oil Spill, July 16, 2010,
  11. The Deepwater Horizon: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly, October 7, 2010.

Turning discarded wooden pallets into cabinets

Inhabitat - James Higginson - recycling pallets

The keen-eyed folks at Inhabitat have identified a useful way of re-using wooden pallets; you can read about this furniture project, developed by James Higginson –  turning pallets into cabinets. Not for beginners, we think, but in any case it’s inspired: the pallets are common, are abandoned as soon as they’re damaged, and, it’s clear, that in the right hands they can  be repurposed as beautiful cabinets.

Texas May Make Basic Health Care for Women A Rare Commodity.

Adenocarcinoma found via Pap test. Pap “stain” is what provides the color (and thereby the coloration and visibility) in this slide.

There’s a proposal pending in Texas which would effectively decertify Planned Parenthood as a Medicaid provider. Andrea Grimes, an investigative reporter who writes about reproductive and women’s health issues at RHRealityCheck, made inquiries as to the actual availability of health care to women on Medicaid in the Austin area.

Grimes used as her criterion the Pap smear, which should be a routine test for adult women (at intervals of three years for those at least risk, more frequently if other risk indicators are present). Among other things, a Pap smear can be the first indication of cancer. In other words, it’s a basic service. A provider of women’s health services who isn’t providing Pap smears isn’t providing basic, necessary services. So the criterion is a reasonable proxy.

While widely available provider lists suggest wide availability a total of 181 medical providers within a thirty-mile radius from one ZIP code in Austin. One potentially barred Planned Parenthood clinic which Grimes reports as “busy” is located within the ZIP boundaries.  Grimes confirmed that, in fact, only thirteen of the 181 providers accepted Medicaid and performed Pap smears. That’s 7.2%.

Grimes has done  a very elegant piece of investigative reporting, but we wish to stress that she’s demonstrated two problems:

  1. the controversy about Planned Parenthood, in the first place, suggests a level of political discourse in which life-or-death decisions are made with reckless disregard for the ground truth;
  2. the prospect of a radical reduction of basic health services to women – also a life-or-death issue. It seems akin to making transportation arrangements – for a group without a lot of political voice – without as much counting the life boats or verifying that they are seaworthy.

Here’s an excerpt from Ms. Grimes’ piece, Without Planned Parenthood, What’s Left for Texas Women? Not Much.

Of the 13 providers that could actually see a Medicaid Women’s Health Program patient, the thirteenth is a forty minute drive from East Austin. And that’s with no traffic. And if you live in Austin, you know there’s no such thing as no traffic. By public transportation it would take over two hours to get to that clinic. And that’s with a half mile walk at the end. Excluding Planned Parenthood from the Women’s Health Program absolutely reduces access to quality care. Full stop. Already, the state has demonstrated that the systems it says it has in place to support women without Planned Parenthood don’t work. Trying to get low-income, quality reproductive health care in Texas, in a major metropolitan area like Austin, without Planned Parenthood is like trying to get a pap smear at a colonoscopy clinic. And I know because I actually tried.

Cognitive Abilities Compromised by Wealth?

Gina Rinehart

The Anna Maria Blog reported here

[Australian] Mining magnate Gina Rinehart intends to bring in semi-skilled migrants to work in her mines.   She doesn’t want Australian workers because our wages are too high so she’s had a brilliant idea – bring in desperate people from other nations willing and overjoyed at the opportunity to work for half the Australian wage. She’s trying to convince anyone who will listen that it’s got nothing to do with profit, she’s not being unpatriotic, she is simply suffering from an acute labour shortage.

The Anna Maria Blog reported  in the same post that there are 10’s of thousands of Australians who would want the jobs Rinehart wants to fill, but they would want them at union scale.

Rinehart has been publicly advocating that Australians should work for no more than $2 per day, given the rates at which Africans and Asians work. Does she include herself in that? If she was to start working for $2 per day? As she is said to makes $600 per second, 51.840 Million per day, what would she do with the $51,839,998 excess?

Mark Memmott, showing that he can cover arcane neuroscience as well as hard news at the NPR “Two-Way” blog, has reported that  Rinehart, reported to be accumulating money at a rate of $600/second, appears to be having trouble with self-awareness, cognition, and empathy. Some memory loss may be indicated. These symptoms of cognitive deficits are most marked in a video which Rinehart produced herself, posted on the website of the Australian Mining Club (one suspects that the A.M.C.’s wine cellars are at exactly the right depth), in which she argues that great fortune is the product of merit. The BBC, which reported the $600 per second figure, also reported that she acquired her wealth via inheritance. It may be that her merit consists of having persuaded the legator of her merit in leaving her or his fortune to her, or that merit may have been self-evident.

Forbes currently lists Rinehart as the world’s 29th-richest person, with a net monetary worth of $18 billion, and the wealthiest woman from the Asia/Pacific region. She could be headed toward becoming the world’s richest person, the magazine speculated last year.

If Australia is, as Rinehart claims, to expensive for business (  Anna Maria Blog / Herald Sun / LA Times ) maybe she should move her operations, and herself, to China or Africa. If she did so would doubtless make Belgium’s King Leopold look like a prince, or Mother Theresa.

Do Rinehart’s mining interests include the mining of lead or mercury?  Does she eat the lead? Mainline the mercury? Perhaps she eats whale?

It has also been suggested that lower income class warriors want to “Eat the Rich.” If that is the case, Rinehart could feed a lot of them.

It’s sad that such an obviously superior woman should be experiencing so much stress as the result of her wealth or the rate of  accumulation of same. Perhaps Australian health authorities should temporarily place her funds in the hands of a custodian while she returns to her senses or regains her humanity or her sense of affiliation with same.

Perhaps Rinehart should spend some time with Paris Hilton. While Hilton’s net monetary worth is estimated at only $100 Million, as opposed to Rinehart’s $18 Billion, but from an existential perspective there doesn’t seem to be an qualitiative difference between $18 Billion of net monetary worth and $100 Million of net monetary worth – both are greater than an individual can ever reasonably expect to spend. And I suspect that Hilton has more fun and may have a more profound sense of herself as a person.

Note that I use the term “Net Monetary Worth” rather than “Net Worth.” This is deliberate and an attempt to distinguish between a person’s intrinsic or existential worth from the value of assets or resources at their disposal.

Paris Hilton, in a bright yellow silk or satin blouse.

Microserrated Kitchen Knife – Never Needs Sharpening

10 CM / 3.9 in Nogent Profile. Florence Fabricant’s article,  DINER’S JOURNAL; Food Stuff: Keep the Hacksaw In the Garage, from the Style Section of the New York Times, caught my eye, and fired up my imagination in regards to citrus and other fruit drinks in the heat.

Neatly slice that blushing peach or that ripe tomato bursting with juice. Cut thin rounds of firm, peppery salami. Gently quarter sea scallops. Whack wedges of lime for drinks. These and many more everyday kitchen jobs will not daunt the new French paring knives by Nogent, with handles in bathing-suit colors.

What makes these knives unusual is that the stainless steel blades have serrations so fine as to be almost microscopic. They do not give hacksaw treatment to delicate fruits; they can handle tougher jobs, and, for those whose sharpening steels and stones simply gather dust, they require no sharpening.

Stainless steel knives with nearly microscopic serrations and no need of sharpening? The implications are not trivial: firefighters and rescue workers cutting people from seat belts; remote medical facilities able to re-use surgical instruments after sterilization but without resharpening? Survival knives which can undergo protracted use in harsh environments?

According to Nogent’s Canadian website, the firm is French, has been in existence since 1823.

 

Latest Updates on Hurricane Irene – NYTimes.com

Latest Updates on Hurricane Irene

By ROBERT MACKEY

On Friday, The Lede is tracking preparations for the expected landfall of Hurricane Irene, a powerful storm heading for the Northeastern United States.

Auto-refresh is: ONTurn ONTurn OFF

Refresh nowUpdating…FeedTwitter

5:46 P.M. |Even if Storm Weakens, Flooding Could Be a Problem

Jeff Masters, a founder of the Weather Underground Web site who studied storms from the air for four years with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Hurricane Hunters, is tracking Irene’s progress in great detail on his WunderBlog.

In his most recent post, Dr. Masters reports: "Satellite data and measurements from the Hurricane Hunters show that Irene is weakening." He explains that an Air Force flight over the storm this morning "found that Irene’s eyewall had collapsed," this morning. He adds: "The winds measured in Irene near the surface support classifying it as a strong Category 1 hurricane or weak Category 2."

Based on the latest data, Dr. Masters produced a good news/bad news forecast: predicting that the storm could cause dramatic flooding even if it weakens to a Category 1 hurricane as it moves north. He explains:

With its eyewall collapsed and just 18 more hours over water before landfall, Irene does not have time to build a new eyewall and intensify. The storm is too large to weaken quickly, and the best forecast is that Irene will be a strong Category 1 hurricane at landfall in North Carolina on Saturday.

Based on the latest wind analysis from NOAA’s Hurricane Research Division and Irene’s continued weakening trend, I predict that the 80-mile section of North Carolina coast to the right of where Irene makes landfall will receive sustained hurricane-force winds of 75-85 m.p.h. on Saturday at landfall; the 80-mile section of coast to the left will receive 55-75 m.p.h. winds. High wind shear of 30 knots will begin ripping into Irene Sunday morning when it is near Southern New Jersey, and more rapid weakening will occur.

By the time Irene arrives on Long Island Sunday afternoon, it will probably have top sustained winds in the 65-75 m.p.h. range. However, since Irene is such a huge storm — tropical storm force winds extend out up to 290 miles from the center — it has set a massive amount of the ocean’s surface in motion, which will cause a much larger storm surge than the winds would suggest. At 3:30 pm EDT this afternoon, a wind analysis from NOAA’s Hurricane Research Division indicated that the potential storm surge damage from Irene still rated a 5.0 on a scale of 0 to 6. This is equivalent to the storm surge a typical Category 4 hurricane would have.

While this damage potential should steadily decline as Irene moves northwards and weakens, we can still expect a storm surge one full Saffir-Simpson Category higher than Irene’s winds when it impacts the coast. Since tides are at their highest levels of the month this weekend due to the new moon, storm surge flooding will be at a maximum during the high tidal cycles that will occur at 8 p.m. Saturday night and 8 a.m. Sunday morning. Wherever Irene happens to be at those times, the storm surge damage potential will be maximized. I continue to give a 20 percent chance that a 3-4 foot storm surge high enough to over-top the Manhattan flood walls and swamp the New York City subway system will occur on Sunday. The latest 11 a.m. probabilistic storm surge map from the National Hurricane Center shows a 20-30 percent chance of a storm surge in excess of 3 feet in New York Harbor. Keep in mind that these maps are calculated for normal tide level, and this weekend’s high tides will be nearly 1 foot above normal.

5:18 P.M. |Looking at Simulations of the Possible Storm Surge

MITA simulation of the storm surge from Hurricane Irene (using the Slosh model) shows severe flooding in New Haven and New London, Conn., (the scale is in feet) and parts of New Jersey, with extra sea height of around four feet (on top of the tide) in New York City.

In a new post on his Dot Earth blog, "New York Surge From Irene Looks Bad, But Not Off Charts," my colleague Andrew Revkin reports:

Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology focused on coastal impacts from hurricanes have run fresh simulations of the possible storm surge as Hurricane Irene hits the New York metropolitan region. Simulations using two surge models (known by their acronyms, SLOSH and ADCIRC) found 1.22 and 1.05 meters of surge (4 and 3.44 feet) of surge at the Battery, at the southern tip of Manhattan.

This would pose serious risks to low installations and the subways but is nowhere near a worst case (think 13 feet, as in 1821)….

The surge model also does not include waves* and the extra tide expected because it’s a new moon. They’re in the process of running a simulation with that factor included.

In an update to the post, he adds:

The Storm Surge Research Group at the State University of New York, Stony Brook, has a great online tool that provides an advance estimate of storm surge at important spots around New York City and Long Island Sound. Click on a buoy to see the current state of sea level and what’s anticipated over the next 24 hours (the models are run twice a day). The group emphasizes that this is a work in progress and should not be used to make evacuation decisions or the like.

via Latest Updates on Hurricane Irene – NYTimes.com.

Follow LJF97 on Twitter Tweet  “Irene is especially worrisome … because of its uncommonly massive size. According to Ron Steve, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service’s Wilmington Office, Irene covers an area of approximately 170,000 square miles, or about the size of California or Iraq.”  Star News Online.

The storm had a 400 miles north to south and covered 170,000 square miles – about the size of California.

Department of Homeland Security adopts NFPA standards for responders

Fire Engineering ,”

The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced the adoption of 11 NFPA standards for emergency responders by DHS. The newly adopted standards will set requirements to assist federal agencies and state and local officials responsible for procuring equipment and services used by emergency responders.

– snip –

The documents adopted will provide direction and allow officials to make better procurement decisions in the following areas: professional qualifications, occupational safety and health, fire apparatus, personal protective clothing, powered rescue tools, and other equipment.

– snip –

The 11 newly adopted standards are:

* NFPA 1000, Standard for Fire Service Professional Qualifications Accreditation and Certification Systems
* NFPA 1001, Standard for Fire Fighter Professional Qualifications
* NFPA 1002, Standard for Fire Apparatus Driver/Operator Professional Qualifications
* NFPA 1006, Standard for Rescue Technician Professional Qualifications
* NFPA 1021, Standard for Fire Officer Professional Qualifications
* NFPA 1500, Standard on Fire Department Occupational Safety and Health Program

* NFPA 1582, Standard on Comprehensive Occupational Medical Program for Fire Departments
* NFPA 1901, Standard for Automotive Fire Apparatus
* NFPA 1906, Standard for Wildland Fire Apparatus
* NFPA 1912, Standard for Fire Apparatus Refurbishing
* NFPA 1936, Standard on Powered Rescue Tools

Continue reading →

International Herald Tribune: Ireland rids itself of a plastic nuisance

Because plastic bags are light and compressible, they constitute only 2 percent of landfill, but since most are not biodegradable they will be there for decades.

According to the International Herald Tribune, “By ‘bagging it,’ Ireland rids itself of a plastic nuisance“by Elisabeth Rosenthal,

There is something missing from this otherwise typical bustling cityscape.

There are taxis and buses. There are hip bars and pollution. Every other person is holding a cellphone to his ear. But there are no plastic bags, the ubiquitous symbol of urban life.

In a determined attempt to deal with litter, Ireland passed a plastic bag tax in 2002 – now 22 euro cents, about 33 U.S. cents – at the register if you want one with your purchases. There was an advertising awareness campaign. Then something happened that was bigger than the sum of these parts.

Within weeks, there was a 94 percent drop in plastic bag use. Within a year, nearly everyone bought reusable cloth bags, which they now keep in the office and the back of their cars. Plastic bags became socially unacceptable – on par with wearing a fur coat or not cleaning up after your dog.

“When my roommate brings one in the flat, it annoys the hell out of me,” said Edel Egan, a photographer carrying a load of groceries in a red backpack.

Countries from China to Australia, cities from New York to San Francisco, have promulgated laws and regulations to address the problem, with decidedly mixed success. Continue reading →

Craig Fugate Confirmed as Head of FEMA

We like Craig Fugate as head of FEMA, and was confirmed by the Senate late today after Senator Vitter (R, LA) released his hold. Choice to Head FEMA is Confirmed

(Associated Press via NY Times).

We believe that Mr. Fugate is responsible for the best definition of a “disaster” – an emergency is a bad situation in which responders outnumber sufferers; in a disaster – the responders are outnumber by those in need. In my dealings with him – mostly by email, he’s been friendly, well-informed and unpretentious. He’s got a tough job – let’s hope the Administration lets him do it. Via Disaster Accountability

See also Fugate’s personal Blog, DisastersRUS

Scott Simon: Captains of Integrity

From this morning’s Weekend Edition Saturday, Scott Simon’s essay, Captains of Integrity. Even if you’re a regular listener – it’s worth reading on the page for the essay itself, as a reminder that at times the production values of radio – and a familiar voice – can prevent us from catching the full power of words. Here’s a link to the piece, including the audio. The full text follows:

· Over the past few weeks, there have been captains in the news to remind us of responsibility, which is a form of conscience.

Capt. Richard Phillips has been acclaimed for risking his own safety for that of his crewmates aboard the cargo ship Maersk Alabama.

But another ship’s captain, Cmdr. Frank Castellano of the U-S-S Bainbridge, took the responsibility to order Navy Seals to open fire on the pirates when he thought, after four days, there might be a moment of opportunity to free Captain Phillips.

If something had gone only slightly wrong – if a single bullet, fired by a man on the deck of a boat in a bobbing sea, had missed by a fraction – Captain Phillips might have been killed, and Commander Castellano would have been second-guessed by every talking head from Fox News to Pacifica Radio.

Capt. Chesley Sullenberger has reminded admirers how many things had to go utterly right for him to make his famous, almost splashless landing of his disabled US Airways jet onto the Hudson River in January.

His decision to put down in the water, rather than risk crashing into midtown Manhattan, seems so wise now. But had wind whipped up the water or tipped a wing, people who don’t know how to make a paper airplane would have second-guessed the decision Captain Sullenberger made in a split second.

This week, Richard Scheidt died, at the age of 81. Mr. Scheidt became a photographic icon when he was a Chicago firefighter in December, 1958, and called to a fire at the Our Lady of Angels school.

Ninety-two children and three nuns were killed in the smoke and flames. The photograph that raced around the world showed Mr. Scheidt, his face grimy and his shoulders slumped, carrying the body of a 10-year-old boy in his arms.

He became a captain. And this week, Dep. Commissioner Bob Hoff recalled how, in scores of fires that were never in the news, Captain Scheidt would hold back his men but go first into a burning building.

Commissioner Hoff told the Chicago Tribune, “He never asked anyone to do something he wouldn’t do.”

I think many Americans have been uplifted to see real-life captains who, unlike some captains of finance and industry, have the character to make hard decisions, share risks, think of others, and live by the consequences.

It’s been reassuring to see such men and women and know that in these times, in scores of places, “The captain is on the bridge.”

Alan Sorum on appropriate power technology in Alaska

From Alan Sorum’s essay,  Appropriate Use of Technology for Power Generation in Alaska.

Alaska does not currently support large-scale electric utilities. There also needs to be a minimal number of customers served by each power line to justify its construction. Weather can be severe and cause failures in the system. This increases costs and accessibility for repairs. Many residents live beyond the economical limits of connection to commercial electric utilities.

Small-scale power systems in rural Alaska offer potential improvements in power distribution, generation and efficiency.

Distribution performance can be improved by the use of small-scale power generators. Smaller generators can be placed much closer to the actual point of consumption. Disruptions to the power supply are reduced and access for line repairs is much easier. Short power lines lose less power in transmission, and the power delivered is “cleaner”, since there are fewer opportunities for broken insulators and lightning storms.

Gas or diesel fired co-generation produces power efficiently, utilizing fuel cells and waste heat for community needs. Hybrid generation systems feature a primary generator, powered by diesel, natural gas. wind or hydro. A computerized inverter allows the primary to charge large banks of storage batteries. During periods of low consumption, the generator shuts down and the system runs off of power from the batteries. Trace Engineering builds a system like this that also allows wind or small hydro to charge the batteries.

Saving energy within a household has the greatest impact on the overall costs for an entire system. There are many ways to save energy in a household. These include super-insulation, using energy efficient light bulbs and appliances, installing high-performance windows and improved conservation techniques.

Rural residents are vulnerable to high costs of power, poor weather conditions, power distribution failures and lack of available support services. The rural versus urban appropriation of state resources will continue to generate debate in Alaska. It is likely funds provided for the power cost equalization program will continue to decline.

Small-scale power generation systems that utilize renewable energy resources could be a bright spot in the future of Alaska. Rural residents can expect improvements to their quality of life with the advent of affordable and reliable electrical power. Using appropriate technology for power generation and distribution makes good sense for the natural capitalists living in rural areas of our state.

Alaska is an extreme example of the necessity of distributing, decentralizing, or localizing power grids – and making consumption as frugal as possible.

Popular Logistics found Sorum’s essay on Google’s Knol system. We think it may have been first published on Suite101.com.

Mr. Sorum has also written good pieces on marine safety and emergency communications, which we hope to excerpt in the near future.