Who Knew?

That there is a data base for high end users of prostitutes. From the Freaks at Freakonomics.

Q. Do you typically know the true identity of your clients, and if so, how?

A. Yes. Always. I insist that they give me their full names and their place of work so that I can contact them there before we meet. I also check their identification when we meet. I also use verification companies, which assist escorts in verification of clients. These companies do the verification of the client and put them in a database so that when the client wants to meet with a girl for the first time, he doesn’t have to go through the verification process again. For a fee, I can call in and they will tell me if the client has a history of giving the girls problems, where he works, and his full name.

Infrastructure At Risk

A multi agency task force studied the risk to infrastructure from rising seas.

Produced by a collaboration among agencies that included the United States Geological Survey, the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration and the Department of Transportation, the report offers three estimates for sea-level rise by 2100: about 16 inches a century, a rate it said had already been exceeded; about two feet, an estimate many scientists regard as optimistic; and up to three feet, which the report says would be catastrophic for wetlands and other coastal features but that is “less than high estimates suggested by more recent publications.”

The academy report cited similar estimates.

The multiagency report cited the Port of Wilmington in Delaware as an example. The report says that if the sea level rises by two feet or even a bit less, 70 percent of port property will be affected.

I think all the estimates in this survey are wildly optimistic.

White Slave Trade Act of 1910

Scott Horton on Eliot Spitzer.

However, there is a second tier of questions that needs to be examined with respect to the Spitzer case. They go to prosecutorial motivation and direction. Note that this prosecution was managed with staffers from the Public Integrity Section at the Department of Justice. This section is now at the center of a major scandal concerning politically directed prosecutions. During the Bush Administration, his Justice Department has opened 5.6 cases against Democrats for every one involving a Republican. Beyond this, a number of the cases seem to have been tied closely to election cycles. Indeed, a study of the cases out of Alabama shows clearly that even cases opened against Republicans are in fact only part of a broader pattern of going after Democrats. So here are the rather amazing facts that surface in the Spitzer case:

Five For Fighting

Absolutely, Brutal fight. via clusterflock.

Another Reason

To stop production of biofuels.

VANCOUVER, Canada (AFP) - A planned increase in US ethanol production from corn would spell environmental "disaster" for marine species in the Gulf of Mexico, said a co-author of a science study published Monday.

A boost in corn production will worsen the Gulf's so-called "dead zone," an area with so little oxygen that sealife suffocates, said Simon Donner, a geographer at the University of British Columbia in Western Canada.

"Most organisms are not able to survive without enough oxygen," Donner told AFP. "All the bottom-dwelling organisms that can't move away are probably going to die, while fish will migrate if they can."

Donner and Chris Kucharik of the University of Wisconsin used computer models to conclude that growing enough corn to meet US biofuel goals set for 2022 would cause a boost of 10 to 34 percent in nitrogen pollution in the Mississippi and Atchafalaya Rivers, which run into the Gulf of Mexico.

The dead zone is more than 12,000 square miles.

Grow corn.
Just for food.
Not cars.

Appalachian Trail Extension

The Pinhoti Trail in Alabama has been completed for a 334 mile extension of the Appalachian Trail.

CHEAHA MOUNTAIN STATE PARK - The rumble of the front-end loader died away, the 10,000-pound limestone and granite boulder finally in its place.

The fog had cleared, and from the rocky overlook, the land fell away to the wooded valley that stretched out west 2,000 feet below. The shadowy humps of mountains to the north and to the south touched the low clouds.

And snaking into the woods was the Pinhoti Trail, marked with blue blazes, heading toward the ridges beyond, a continuous footpath that is now connected to the Appalachian Trail and can take a hiker up the spine of the mountains from Alabama 2,504 miles to Mount Katahdin in Maine.

om Cosby, a hiker and the marketing director of the Birmingham Regional Chamber of Commerce, watched the boulder placed in its spot, marking the Pinhoti Trail's highest point in Alabama. It was a crowning moment of more than two decades of work, and the fulfillment of a vision first articulated in 1925, a feat that will be celebrated next Sunday with the official opening of the Pinhoti Trail's connection to the Appalachian Trail.

"This puts Alabama on the map as a mountain hiking destination," Cosby said.

The Pinhoti also stretches south and will eventually be completed to Flagg Mountain in Coosa County, the southernmost mountain of the Appalachian mountain system. Backers hope eventually to make the case for getting the Alabama extension recognized as the official southern terminus of the Appalachian Trail, which would require an act of Congress.

334 miles to AT:

From Cheaha, Alabama's highest mountain, it's 334 miles up through the remote regions of the Talladega National Forest and through the Chattahoochee National Forest in northwest Georgia to the beginning of the Appalachian Trail at Springer Mountain.

Currently, the trail takes about six months to hike. Adding the Pinhoti connection would extend that hike by about a month.

I do not think they will be able to get the act of congress passed. But, hey, what do I know.

Your Inner Nerd

What Be Your Nerd Type? Your Result: Social Nerd You're interested in things such as politics, psychology, child care, and peace. I wouldn't go so far as to call you a hippie, but some of you may be tree-huggers. You're the type of people who are interested in bettering the world. You're possible the least nerdy of them all; unless you participate in other activies that paled your nerdiness compared to your involvement in social activities. Whatever the case, we could still use more of you around. ^_^
Literature Nerd
Science/Math Nerd
Gamer/Computer Nerd
Anime Nerd
Drama Nerd
Artistic Nerd
Musician
What Be Your Nerd Type? Quizzes for MySpace

Centrism

Glen Greenwald on the evils of centrism.

But this belief that "balance" and "centrism" are intrinsically sober is itself a deeply corrupt and shallow notion. What if one side really is far more destructive and more toxic than the other -- not even necessarily because one side is more inherently corrupt but just because it exerts far more power? What if the administration and its political followers who happen to be running the country at any given time really are radical extremists and unprecedentedly corrupt and dangerous? Under those circumstances, practicing Beltway "balance" for its own sake -- venerating Broderian "centrism" -- is deeply unserious, even dishonest and dangerous.

When there is grave imbalance in political power, corruption or extremism -- as there has been for the last eight years, at least -- then those who preach balance and demand a centrist critique of everything are the ones who are mindless, misleading partisans. They demand centrist equivalencies as an ideology, regardless of whether those equivalencies are real.

The Paragons of Balance and Centrism are actually often destructive. By design, they prevent exposure of truly radical and extreme political misconduct by demanding that every criticism be restrained, muted, two-sided, drained of intensity, and circumscribed by false equivalencies -- lest the critique be dismissed as a "partisan screed." In this regard, those who insist upon the intrinsic virtues of Balance and Centrism in political commentary are the greatest allies of extremism and the most loyal protectors of the politically corrupt.

Read it all.

Meltdown

Krugman

Friday’s employment report — which was so weak that it had many economists declaring that we’re already in a recession — was bad news. But it was actually less disturbing than what’s going on in the financial markets.

The scariest thing I’ve read recently is a speech given last week by Tim Geithner, the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Mr. Geithner came as close as a Fed official can to saying that we’re in the midst of a financial meltdown.

To understand the gravity of the situation, you have to know what the Fed did last summer, and again last fall.

As late as August the favorite buzzword of financial officials was “contained”: problems in subprime mortgages, we were assured, wouldn’t spread to other financial markets or to the economy as a whole.

Read it all.

User Fees

For our national forest land. You know the land we already own.

Though the new and increased fees still account for a small part of the agencies’ overall budgets, they have riled elected officials and environmental and recreation groups across the West. The critics complain that there has been insufficient public involvement in the changes — imposed at hundreds of locations over the past three years or so — and suggest that they reflect a significant shift in federal policy to a market-based approach from one of managing sites for public benefit.

Unlike the National Park Service, which has routinely charged admission and other fees at its parks, the Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management and other federal agencies have historically been less aggressive in imposing such assessments.

“Our government wants to charge us $5 or $10 to go for a walk in the woods — our woods,” said Kitty Benzar of the Western Slope No-Fee Coalition, in Durango, Colo. “We don’t think it’s right.”

Senator Max Baucus, Democrat of Montana, has introduced a bill that would repeal the authority of the Forest Service and other agencies to raise or institute many of the fees.

“The authority given land managers is being abused,” Mr. Baucus said. “They are using it to pad their budgets at the expense of the public. I think it’s just wrong.”

The Republicans added a provision in a large appropriations bill with no debate on the subject.

The 1965 rules were repealed in late 1996 by the Recreational Fee Demonstration Program that came to be known as Fee Demo. Originally limited to a 2-year experiment at no more than 100 sites, Fee Demo was repeatedly expanded and extended, but met increasing public resistance. By 2004, there was so much opposition to Fee Demo that another extension was unlikely to pass, and the program was set to expire. Instead, Representative Ralph Regula (R-OH) attached the Federal Lands Recreation Enhancement Act to a must-pass omnibus appropriations bill, which went into effect on December 8, 2004.

FLREA, known to its detractors as the Recreation Access Tax, or RAT, replaced Fee Demo with a permanent fee program. It was never debated on the floor of the House and was not even introduced in the Senate. Under FLREA, access fees have multiplied, visitation has declined, recreational facilities that cannot pay their own way in fees have been closed, and fee revenue has replaced public funds at the local level.

"Recreation user fees were originally sold as a way for the agencies to raise supplemental funds to address their backlogged maintenance," according to Benzar. "Instead, fee revenue was used for day-to-day operations and to build facilities that have only added to long-term maintenance needs. And now we are facing thousands of site closures and being told they are necessary because there is still no money for the backlog."

I'm sure they would like to privatize all public land. Wild Wilderness has more info and a blog on the issue.

Past Peak?

It seems farmers are having a hard time keeping up with global demand for grains.

Farmers the world over are producing flat-out. American agricultural exports are expected to increase 23 percent this year to $101 billion, a record. The world’s grain stockpiles have fallen to the lowest levels in decades.

“Everyone wants to eat like an American on this globe,” said Daniel W. Basse of the AgResource Company, a Chicago consultancy. “But if they do, we’re going to need another two or three globes to grow it all.”

No mention of biofuels taking corn from the food supply. The price of food by next summer/fall could be staggering. Not to mention the price of beer and pizza, things that make life wonderful and good.

Free Curly Fries Monday

Matt Kenseth won the Nationwide Series race. He was driving the number 17 Arby's Ford. In the post race interview he said free curly fries on Monday at Arby's.

Hopefully he will do well tomorrow.

Grand Canyon

Wrath, originally uploaded by Leviathor.

Scientists say the Grand Canyon is much older than thought.

WASHINGTON (AFP) - A new dating technique has put the age of the Grand Canyon at 17 million years old, three times older than earlier estimates, according to a report in the latest edition of the journal Science.

The latest in uranium-lead isotope dating allowed researchers to study the canyon's "cave clouds", the mamillary coatings of carbon deposits that gather on the canyon walls at or near the water table, the journal said in its edition released Thursday.

"The canyon is older than we think," said Victor Polyak, a geologist at the University of New Mexico and principal author of the paper.

The age of the natural wonder in the US southwest has been in dispute for more than a century, as some methods commonly used to date geological events are unable to trace with precision beyond one million years ago.

Polyak and his team also found that, based on the hypothesis that the mineral deposits in the caves were left by a declining water table level as the Grand Canyon deepened, it formed first at its western side and then opened up to the east, with the eastern side cut out more quickly some five to six million years ago.

Around The World In Seven Years

Daren Wendell is about to start walking around the world. Starting with an Appalachian Trail thru-hike. According to his site theearthexpedition.com/ he should be starting within the hour. He will probably have to much weight judging by his March 1 entry.

I have a bit of a problem on my hands! I find it quite the task to condense everything that I own and have to live off of for the next seven years to under 40 pounds :{ It has been a couple days now and I still don't have it all figured out. I am afraid to weigh the pack but I know it is inevitable. Let's just hope it is under 40 because I am not sure what I can leave behind!

He does not have to carry everything. Judging from the site he should have a good bit of support. It will be interesting to see what he ditches along the way. I carry a base of 25 pounds and that is considered heavy in the long distance community. Hopefully he will stop at the Walasi-YI center in Neels gap and let them go through his pack.

There is a picture of his gear on the site. What do you think needs to go? Bear cannister, 1 litter fuel bottle, nalgenes ?

Well, Good luck, Daren! Sound like fun to me. May you stay healthy and wise.

Friday Bird Feeder Blogging

chickadee.JPG, originally uploaded by cheflovesbeer.

A black capped chikadee

Peak Food

British scientist John Beddington says food production problems will hit before global warming. Look what he has to say about biofuels.

But he reserved some of his most scathing comments for the biofuel industry, which he said had delivered a "major shock" to world food prices. "In terms of biofuels there has been, quite properly, a reaction against it," he said. "There are real problems with unsustainability."

Biofuel production is due to increase hugely in the next 15 years. The US plans to produce 30bn gallons of biofuels by 2022 - which will mean trebling maize production. The EU has a target for biofuels to make up 5.75% of transport fuels by 2010.

But Beddington said it was vital that biofuels were grown sustainably. "Some of the biofuels are hopeless. The idea that you cut down rainforest to actually grow biofuels seems profoundly stupid."

Before taking over the chief scientist post from Sir David King nine weeks ago, Beddington was professor of applied population biology at Imperial College London. He is an expert on the sustainable use of renewable resources.

Remember

Grow corn.
Just for food.
Not cars.

Tainted Drugs

Why can we import drugs from China? Time and time again they are contaminated. Why can we not import drugs from Canada? Canada has no history of tainted drugs. I bet it has to do with drug company profits.

But the FDA said that all the US batches of heparin linked to health problems and deaths were made with ingredients that came from China.

Anxiety Election

Paul Krugman from the New York Times.

All of this should work to the Democrats’ advantage. They can contrast the Clinton boom with the Bush bust; they can make the case that Republican economic ideology, with its fixation on privatization and deregulation, helped get us into this mess.

And John McCain can be ridiculed as a man who has declared on a number of occasions that he doesn’t know much about economics — only to insist, straight-talker that he is, that he never said any such thing.

Placebo

Amazing.

The pills had a strong placebo effect in both groups. But 85 percent of those using the expensive pills reported significant pain relief, compared with 61 percent on the cheaper pills. The investigators corrected for each person’s individual level of pain tolerance.

It makes me wonder if drugs actually work at all.

Appalachian Trail In PA

The PA Legislature is considering a zoning law to protect the trail corridor.

Each year, thousands of people come to Pennsylvania to hike the scenic and historic Appalachian Trail. As was the intent of its founder, Benton MacKaye, most use the trail to escape from life in a busy city or suburb and relax in nature -- trees, plants, wildlife and clean vistas. In some areas of the trail in this state, however, these views are being threatened.

Efforts to keep the skyline unobstructed and things like power lines far away have been initiated by state Rep. Bob Freeman, the Democrat from Easton and chairman of the House Local Government Committee. His bill, HB 1281, has been passed in the House of Representatives and is now awaiting action in the Senate. The new legislation, an amendment to the Appalachian Trail Act of 1978, would require each municipality through which the trail runs to create and enforce zoning laws to protect the trail from these visual encroachments.