BMCC Student Channels Jack Abramoff

Curtis Brown, president of the Student Government at the Borough of Manhattan Community College is following in the footsteps of a young Jack Abramoff. As reported in the New York Daily News:

May 13, 2008, Brown is trying to evict the New York Public Interest Research Group, NYPIRG from BMCC.The PIRGs have always focused on things like responsible government, consumer protection, and an informed citizenry making intelligent decisions. As chairman of the College Republicans, in 1983, Abramoff and his right-wing storm troopers did not “seek peaceful coexistence with the left.” They felt that their “job is to remove them from power permanently.” Brown is doing what Abramoff tried to do 25 years ago.

Here’s what Thomas Frank wrote in the New York Times, August 29, 2006, “Defunders of Liberty:”

Abramoff and his clean-cut campus radicals pushed their own “defund the left” campaign with characteristic elan, declaring war on Ralph Nader’s Public Interest Research Groups, or PIRG, environmental and consumer activist outfits that were funded by student activity fees on some campuses. The young conservatives were always careful to cast the issue as a matter of “student rights” versus political coercion, but Abramoff clearly saw it as an avenue to ideological victory. “When we win this one,” he boasted in 1983, “we’ll have done more to neutralize Ralph Nader than anyone else, ever.”

The NY Times article is re-published in the blogosphere, click here, and here, and can be googled or yahooed.

Abramoff, currently serving 70 months for conspiracy and fraud, has also admitted to tax evasion, defrauding his clients and conspiring to bribe public officials.

Bioengineered E. Coli – Smells like Bananas

Bioengineers at MIT have modified e. coli bacteria in two ways: rather than smell like human fecal matter, their E. coli cultures smell like mint when they’re growing, and banana when they are mature.

If they can do that, can should be able to devise metabolic pathways that breaks down plastics into carbon dioxide, which then can be metabolized, which will render plastic biodegradable.  However, to mitigate the global warming effects of the carbon dioxide, they also need to figure out ways to sequester the carbon.

Bob Coffield – Health Care Law Blog

Bob Coffield, an attorney specializing in health care law, is the proprietor of the Health Care Law Blog.

(Those of you paying close attention will notice that between the URL and the name  — the words are reversed. It’s the right address).

This is an excellent blog – but of the posts I’ve read so far, Coffield is a big-picture/systems guy, and very thoughtful. He’s asking good questions about health care policy and risk – and I didn’t see a single post that presupposed any legal knowledge. Haven’t yet had time to go through old posts to see if he’s followed issues of mass casualty incidents/disaster treatment, but I’m subscribing to his feed, and will try to keep an eye out.

VA Lies About Suicides of Veteran

Another Agency of the Executive Branch –

Senator: VA lying about number of veteran suicides

WASHINGTON — The Veterans Administration has lied about the number of veterans who’ve attempted suicide, a senator charged Wednesday, citing internal e-mails that put the number at 12,000 a year when the department was publicly saying it was fewer than 800.“The suicide rate is a red-alarm bell to all of us,” said Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash. Murray also said that the VA’s mental health programs are being overwhelmed by Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans, even as the department tries to downplay the situation.

“We are not your enemy, we are your support team, and unless we get accurate information we can’t be there to do our jobs,” Murray told Deputy Secretary of Veterans Affairs Gordon Mansfield during the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee hearing. Continue reading →

Inhabitat: Transparent Solar Panels

Inhabitat reports on transparent solar panels developed at the University of Queensland. solarglass1.jpg

From Mike Chino

‘s article:

The Queensland University of Technology recently announced that it has been working with Dyesol to develop an innovative solar cell technology that re-envisions windows as clear, clean energy providers. Professor John Bell has said that these dye-infused solar cells would significantly reduce building energy costs, and could even generate surplus energy to be stored or sold. The development has been touted as the most promising advance in solar cell technology since the invention of the silicon cell.

Modern architecture has a love-hate relationship with windows: they contribute light and levity to interior spaces, yet they are the most frequently cited culprits for thermal energy loss. Traditional approaches to the problem have tended towards increasing insular ability, however this new development would imbue windows with power producing capabilities, actually providing energy instead of leaking it.

Dyesol’s solar cells use an innovative technology called “artificial photosynthesis”, wherein a dye analogous to chlorophyll absorbs light to generate electricity

. The panels are composed of “an electrolyte, a layer of titania (a pigment used in white paints and tooth paste), and ruthenium dye sandwiched between glass. Light striking the dye excites electrons which are absorbed by the titania to become an electric current.”

Dye solar cells are cheaper and require less energy to manufacture than silicon cells, since they don’t require expensive raw materials. They also produce electricity more efficiently, even in instances of “shadowing”, where overcast skies and shadows from trees and other buildings can cause a loss in collected power.

These solar windows will offer an enticing new option for skyscrapers and houses looking to break the zero-energy barrier – imagine the net power that a floor-to-ceiling glass-walled skyscraper could produce! Current cells have a rosy tint, although blue, grey and green cells are in the works. Dyesol says the panels will be commercially available over the next few years.

.

James Risen: G.I.’s Death Prompts 2 Inquiries of Iraq Electrocutions – New York Times

James Risen reported in the NY Times of March 20th:

On Jan. 2, Staff Sgt. Ryan D. Maseth, a 24-year-old Green Beret from Pennsylvania, stepped into a shower at his base in the Radwaniyah Palace Complex in Baghdad and was electrocuted. Now, two months later, his death has resulted in both a Congressional investigation and a Pentagon inspector general’s inquiry into similar cases.

Reports of at least 12 deaths; Sgt. Maseth’s family has filed suit against KBR/Halliburton in the Pennsylvania state courts.

Thanks to laviolet at Daily Kos for pointing me to the Risen article; laviolet’s post is here; the Houston Chronicle also covered this story (I will add links when I can) .  Laviolet’s post has a number of other resources for those in search of more details.

James Risen, “G.I.’s Death Prompts 2 Inquiries of Iraq Electrocutions” New York Times, March 20, 2008.

Johnny Appleseed Was Right

We might say “the key to the future is a sustainable agricultural and economic system in which each member’s net negative carbon footprint, or their net incremental carbon cost is zero.”

Johnny Appleseed, on the other hand, would simply say just “Plant more trees, especially apple, grow more grains, vegetables, and roots like the groundnut.”

“And,” he might add, “do you really need to drive to the mall in a military transport vehicle?”

The Economic Value of Solar Power

One of my friends recently complained that the electric bill for his business has doubled in the last 5 years – and runs to about $500,000 per year. I was stunned. Being a ‘numbers guy’, I ran the statistic backwards and realized that it’s a 15% annual growth rate. I also realized that it’s the same for me at home. My power and fuel bills, electricity, heat, and gasoline have also doubled, to about $6,000 a year, over the last few years.

I told him that just like I could install a photovoltaic solar power system on my roof that would generate all the electricity I need, he could use solar power to generate much of the electricity he needs. His response was ‘You’re may be right. But how?’ he asked.

‘Simple’, I said, ‘just put solar modules on the roof. Add an inverter to convert DC power to AC, a meter than can run backwards, and you’re in business. Just like we’re talking about for the school system.

On top of that, the Solar Renewable Energy Certificate, or SREC, value of the power, in New Jersey, add considerably to the value of that power. The SRECs work like this. The Board of Public Utilities tells the Electric Utilities that they have a choice. Generate power using solar, pay a fine, or buy SRECs. The SRECs today are worth MORE than the price of each kwh if generated by those old 19th and 20th Century technologies, coal, oil, and nuclear. Click here for the NJ Clean Energy Program, click here for SREC trading and historical values.

Bill Scott, of Akeena Solar , says “Solar will be competitive WITHOUT INCENTIVES when electricity is at $0.21 to $0.25 per kwh.” We at Popular Logististics think may be the summer of 2009. The incentives, however, make it much better, today.

According to the Asbury Park Press, “School District Sold on Solar” in addition to the money they don’t spend on electricity, and any revenues they hope realize from the sale of carbon offsets, the Toms River, NJ School District expects to realize $1.25 to $1.5 million from the sale of their SRECs next year.

Larry Furman for School Board

We endorse Lawrence Furman for Manalapan Englishtown School Board.

First, a disclaimer. There are hundreds of political blogs on the Internet. Popular Logistics is not

one of them. However, Larry is one of our writers and editors. We have made an exception and endorsed his candidacy.

Larry wants to put Solar Power on the schools in the Manalapan Englishtown district, and every district in the country. For his campaign web-site, click here. He is one of five candidates vying for three positions. We have not spoken with the others, yet. The election is Tuesday, April 15, 2008.

Manalapan English Budget – Click Here. Voting information – Click Here.

Southwest Airlines and The Federal Aviation Administration

From the Houston Chronicle, Inspector blasts FAA for Southwest relationship“Southwest Airlines exerted undue influence within the Federal Aviation Administration, creating an atmosphere that let the carrier fly aircraft after cracks had been discovered in a jet’s fuselage, inspectors told a House panel.”

And from the Washington Post, FAA Derailed Safety Alarms, “They also said the FAA had gone from aggressively regulating airlines to treating them like customers or clients. Lawmakers and outside safety experts have expressed similar worries about regulators’ coziness with the carriers.”

I won’t fly if in order to get on a plane and be confident that it will take off, fly, and land, I’ll have to go to the airport and inspect the plane. Forget the fact that I’m not qualified; it’s inefficient for every passenger, or even one out of 10,000, to go to the airport, review the maintenance records, and study the planes. But isn’t that’s why we have an FAA? Isn’t that why we have a government?

Isn’t it the role of government to provide police and defensive forces to protect law abiding citizens from thieves, scoundrels and external threats; from invaders and from thugs who would point a gun at me and say ‘your money or your life’? That doesn’t mean I don’t have the right to self-defense; it means that I have the right to expect that the police and the courts will protect my rights, including my right to self-defense.

Take that one step further. If I can count on the government to protect me against a thug who will steal my money at gunpoint, then I should be able to count on the government to protect me from someone who, in Woody Guthrie’s words, will ‘rob me with a fountain pen’ by pouring toxic wastes into the air we breathe and rivers we drink from and swim in, or perhaps by ignoring airplane maintenance regulations.

This doesn’t make me a liberal or a conservative, but it sure doesn’t make me a Bush Cheney McCain Republican. It might make me a John Warner Republican, but they pushed him out of the Party. I guess it makes me a liberal because it leads me to believe that the government has the obligation to inspect and regulate airplanes, taxis, roads, cars, and to make sure that we have clean air, clean water, and healthy food, and to educate our children and to do the kinds of things that Edwards was talking about on the stump.

When you believe, as Reagan put it, that “the scariest sentence is ‘I’m from the government and I’m here to help’” you’re saying we don’t want foxes guarding the henhouse, we don’t want anyone guarding the henhouse, in fact we’re going to sell the wood, the chickens will stay put.

The Day After Three Mile Island

March 28, 2008 was the 28th Anniversary of the Meltdown at Three Mile Island, which makes March 29 the 28th Anniversary of the Day After Three Mile Island.

Still, it’s hard to say ‘Happy Anniversary.’ The last nuclear power plant to come on line in the United States, the Watts Bar plant in Tennessee, took 23 years to complete. And no new nuclear power plants have been ordered or built.

This is in part because of Three Mile Island, and its sister-disaster, Chernobyl. While the American nuclear power industry says ‘We do it better’ the truth of the matter is that American reactors are safer because American anti-nuclear activists have forced the United States government to pay attention and American nuclear plant owners and operators to build in redundant safety systems. Continue reading →

John McCain, Sunnis and Shiites

Senator John McCain touts his foreign policy experience, yet he doesn’t know the difference between the Sunnis and the Shiites in Iraq and Iran. Sunnis are a majority in the Arab and Muslim world. Most of the Arabs, Turks, Kurds, and Iranians are Sunni. Turks, Kurds, and Iranians are not Arabs. Iraqis are Arabs, and most are Shiite.
Not knowing the difference is kind of like not knowing the difference between Catholics and Protestants in Ireland. Or Baptists, Catholics, Episcopalians, and Mormans in the United States. Or Puerto Ricans, Italians, and Irish Catholics in Brooklyn.

(Note – this blog is generally more about Policy than Politics

. However, the two are inseparable, and people who would make and enforce Policy

, i.e., Presidents of the United States, must understand Politics .)