Author Archives: Abe Smith

The Minimum Wage in America Is Pretty Damn Low

by Abe Smith Posted on December 2, 2013

Mother Jones

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Everyone’s talking about the minimum wage today. I’m in favor of raising it, and I always have been, but a picture is worth a thousand words, so here’s a picture for you. Courtesy of the OECD, it shows the minimum wage in various rich countries as a percentage of the average wage. The United States isn’t quite the lowest, but we’re pretty damn close.

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The Minimum Wage in America Is Pretty Damn Low

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Now the Government Shutdown Is Stopping Blood Drives

by Abe Smith Posted on October 3, 2013

Mother Jones

Here’s how the government shutdown may literally be killing people: by causing blood shortages.

For all the scorn heaped on government employees, some people forget that the faceless bureaucrats who populate Washington are often, in fact, a bunch of do-gooders—people who genuinely believe in the notion of public service. As such, they contribute to the public good in a lot of ways that are taken for granted, like their immense contribution to local blood banks. Thirty-eight percent of the population is eligible to give blood, but only 5 percent actually does so. A lot of that 5 percent apparently works for the federal government. Thanks to the shutdown, in just two days, four federal agency blood drives scheduled by one DC-area health care system have been canceled. The regional Red Cross has had to cancel six others in the Washington region.

Inova Blood Donor Services projects that the cancelations will result in its projected loss of 300 donations that would have helped 900 patients in DC, Maryland, and Virginia. Inova’s donated blood collections supply 24 hospitals, which bank much of the blood for inevitable disasters or, say, terrorist attacks. The Red Cross is suffering from similar disruptions, projecting the loss of 229 donations, each of which could potentially save up to three lives. A single major trauma event can easily deplete a hospital’s entire blood store. The longer the shutdown goes on, the worse the situation is likely to get.

Rebecca Manarchuck, marketing director for Inova Blood Donor Services, says the Washington area supplies were already low, thanks to reduced collection rates that historically happen in the summertime. The shutdown is only compounding the shortage. Blood drives are carefully scheduled and planned well in advance. Doing them at government offices requires a host of logistical arrangements because of tight security and other considerations, meaning that rescheduling the drives for a later date won’t be an easy task. And even then, donated blood can’t even be used until three days after it’s given to allow time for all the screening tests, resulting in some lag time before it can be given to patients in need.

Inova is attempting to make up for the loss by encouraging people to donate blood at their three centers in Virginia. (The Red Cross is also encouraging people to donate at local chapters.) Members of Congress are encouraged to make an appointment here and here.

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Now the Government Shutdown Is Stopping Blood Drives

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11 Ways to Reduce Your Garbage

by Abe Smith Posted on August 22, 2013

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11 Ways to Reduce Your Garbage

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Don’t Read This If You’re Afraid of the Dark

by Abe Smith Posted on July 22, 2013

Mother Jones

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A country whose capital, Paris, made history with its “City of Light” glowing streets is suddenly trying to dial them down. Starting this summer, a French decree mandates that public buildings and shops must keep lights off between 1 a.m. and 7 a.m in attempt to preserve energy and cut costs, and “reduce the print of artificial lighting on the nocturnal environment.”

As France’s move suggests, civilization’s ever-growing imprint on the night sky has more than just stargazers concerned. In his new book, The End of Night: Searching for Natural Darkness in an Age of Artificial Light, writer Paul Bogard bemoans how our last dark spaces are slowly being devoured by the “light trespass” of artificial rays. A team of astronomers recently projected that while the US population is growing at a rate of less than 1.5 percent a year, the amount of artificial light is increasing at an annual rate of 6 percent. It’s more than just a nostalgia for primordial darkness that’s eating at Bogard: Too much light causes animals to go haywire, derails natural cycles, and damages human health.

The greatest sources of light pollution in cities worldwide are street lamps and parking lots, partially because we’ve been bred to believe that public lighting equals safety. Take this recent map of the number one 311 complaint of New Yorkers during the summer of 2012; people wig out when there’s a dark bulb on their block.

But there’s a chance we have it all wrong, argues Bogard. In the late ’70s, a US Department of Justice report found no statistical evidence that street lighting reduced crime. More recently, similar findings—such as this 2008 review by California’s public utilities company—have been largely ignored by the general public.

Optometrist Alan Lewis, former president of the Illuminating Engineering Society of North America, argues in the The End of Night that the glare of poorly designed street lamps (“probably eighty percent of street lighting”) can even make it harder to see things at night. Our eyes don’t have a chance to adjust to darker areas, and the extreme contrasts make our night vision poor.

It gets much worse than not being able to see in the dark. Scientists have unearthed troubling links between artificial light and our most feared diseases: obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular risk, and cancer. Apart from preventing people from getting adequate shut-eye, electric light at night has been show to suppress the body’s production of melatonin, which is thought to play an important role in keeping certain cancers, such as breast and prostate cancer, from growing. Potent “blue” lights—such as those used in certain energy-efficient LEDs, and on tablets, cellphones, computers, and TVs—may be the worst culprits. “It turns out that the wavelength of light that most directly affects our production of melatonin at night,” writes Bogard, “is exactly the wavelength of light that we are seeing more and more of in the modern world.”

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Don’t Read This If You’re Afraid of the Dark

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Conservative Climate Hawks to GOP: Wake the Hell Up

by Abe Smith Posted on July 10, 2013

Mother Jones

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Eli Lehrer wants conservatives to take global warming seriously. He’s the president of the R Street Institute, a free-market think tank whose board includes former South Carolina Republican Rep. Bob Inglis—a celebrated conservative apostate on climate change—and another freethinking conservative, David Frum.

Recently, Lehrer took to the pages of the Weekly Standard to make the conservative case for a carbon tax (while also criticizing President Obama’s recent climate proposals). “Rather than pretend climate change isn’t a problem, there are ample opportunities for Republicans to point out the obvious flaws in the left’s plans to deal with it and offer alternatives of their own,” writes Lehrer. He adds that the scientific debate over whether humans are causing climate change is pretty much over:

Nobody seriously involved in the policy debate over climate change—not even those the left unfairly labels as “deniers”—actually denies that humans influence global climate. There’s also no dispute that the Earth is warmer than it was before the Industrial Revolution or that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases can trap heat energy.

Unfortunately, however, it looks like many other influential voices on the right are still trying to find “scientific” reasons to discount or minimize global warming.

Lately, a favored argument is to suggest that global warming may have stopped after the year 1998. Versions of this claim were articulated by Washington Post columnist Charles Krauthammer, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, and numerous others in response to Obama’s recent climate speech. Or as Krauthammer put it: “Global temperatures have been flat for 16 years—a curious time to unveil a grand, hugely costly, socially disruptive anti-warming program.”

This is very misleading. First, if you’re simply looking at record temperature years, then 2010 and 2005 both beat 1998 for the highest global average temperature, according to NASA. The World Meteorological Organization agrees that 2010 is the hottest year on record, “followed closely by 2005.” The WMO also notes that the 2000s were the hottest decade on record (see graphic above).

A more sophisticated version of this latest “skeptic” argument is to note that the rate of global warming in the last 15 years has been slower, or has been “leveling off.” But as the blog Skeptical Science points out, that’s only true for atmospheric temperatures—which, in turn, only reflect a small part of the overall global warming picture. Warming of other parts of the planet, and especially the oceans, proceeds apace.

“Conservatives should care about global warming,” writes Lehrer at the end of his Weekly Standard article. Alas, many still seem to be looking for a reason not to.

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Conservative Climate Hawks to GOP: Wake the Hell Up

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A Song for the Fallen on Independence Day

by Abe Smith Posted on July 4, 2013

green4us

Munitorum: Vulcan Mega Bolter – Games Workshop

The Vulcan Mega Bolter churns out bolt shells into the ranks of the enemy, its huge rotary cannons capable of turning entire platoons of soldiers into crimson mist in the blind of an eye. The largest of the Imperium’s bolt weaponry it is found only on titans and in the turrets of super heavy tanks. About this Series: Weapons are the tools of war and with the […]

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Inside of a Dog – Alexandra Horowitz

The bestselling book that asks what dogs know and how they think, now in paperback. The answers will surprise and delight you as Alexandra Horowitz, a cognitive scientist, explains how dogs perceive their daily worlds, each other, and that other quirky animal, the human. Horowitz introduces the reader to dogs’ perceptual and cognitive abilities and then draw […]

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Kids Puzzle Fun #1 – Lovatts Crosswords & Puzzles

Junior puzzlers will enjoy hours of quality entertainment with the first issue of Kids Puzzle Fun! This interactive book features ‘Magic Touch’ drawing tools, allowing kids to solve the puzzles by using their finger as a pen. Magic Touch unites the tactile feel of a printed book with a superior digital format, resulting in a more natural, intuitive experienc […]

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Cesar’s Way – Cesar Millan & Melissa Jo Peltier

“I rehabilitate dogs. I train people.” —Cesar Millan There are at least 68 million dogs in America, and their owners lavish billions of dollars on them every year. So why do so many pampered pets have problems? In this definitive and accessible guide, Cesar Millan—star of National Geographic Channel’s hit show Dog Whisperer with Cesar Millan —reveals what do […]

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The Art of Raising a Puppy (Revised Edition) – Monks of New Skete

For more than thirty years the Monks of New Skete have been among America’s most trusted authorities on dog training, canine behavior, and the animal/human bond. In their two now-classic bestsellers, How to be Your Dog’s Best Friend and The Art of Raising a Puppy, the Monks draw on their experience as long-time breeders of German shepherds and as t […]

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Marley & Me – John Grogan

The heartwarming and unforgettable story of a family and the wondrously neurotic dog who taught them what really matters in life. Now with photos and new material […]

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Trident K9 Warriors – Michael Ritland & Gary Brozek

As Seen on “60 Minutes”! As a Navy SEAL during a combat deployment in Iraq, Mike Ritland saw a military working dog in action and instantly knew he’d found his true calling. Ritland started his own company training and supplying dogs for the SEAL teams, U.S. Government, and Department of Defense. He knew that fewer than 1 percent of […]

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Paracord Fusion Ties – Volume 1 – J.D. Lenzen

J.D. Lenzen is the creator of the highly acclaimed YouTube channel “Tying It All Together”, and the producer of over 200 instructional videos. He’s been formally recognized by the International Guild of Knot Tyers (IGKT) for his contributions to knotting, and is the originator of fusion knotting-innovative knots created through the merging of […]

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How to Raise the Perfect Dog – Cesar Millan & Melissa Jo Peltier

From the bestselling author and star of National Geographic Channel’s Dog Whisperer , the only resource you’ll need for raising a happy, healthy dog. For the millions of people every year who consider bringing a puppy into their lives–as well as those who have already brought a dog home–Cesar Millan, the preeminent dog behavior expert, says, “Yes, […]

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Following Atticus – Tom Ryan

After a close friend died of cancer, middle-aged, overweight, acrophobic newspaperman Tom Ryan decided to pay tribute to her in a most unorthodox manner. Ryan and his friend, miniature schnauzer Atticus M. Finch, would attempt to climb all forty-eight of New Hampshire’s four thousand- foot peaks twice in one winter while raising money for charity. It wa […]

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A Song for the Fallen on Independence Day

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Gabby Giffords Kicks Off Her 7-State Background Checks Tour By Firing a Handgun

by Abe Smith Posted on July 2, 2013

Mother Jones

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On Monday, former Democratic Rep. Gabrielle Giffords began her seven-day, seven-state “Rights and Responsibilities Tour” at a firing range in Las Vegas, Nevada. This was the first time Giffords has fired a gun since sustaining a gunshot wound to the head during a January 2011 assassination attempt in Tucson, Arizona. (The shooting rampage, which occurred at a “Congress on Your Corner” event held in front of a Safeway, left six attendees dead and another thirteen wounded). Here’s footage of Giffords and her husband Mark Kelly at the firing range (via ABC News):

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Giffords and Kelly’s “Rights and Responsibilites Tour”—which includes stops in Alaska, Maine, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, North Dakota, and Ohio—is part of an effort to revive and rally support for gun background checks legislation, which collapsed in the Senate in April. The opening event in Vegas fits with Giffords and Kelly’s insistence that, while pushing for stricter gun measures, the two are proud gun owners and staunch supporters of the Second Amendment. “I’m a patriot who believes in the 2nd Amendment,” Giffords writes in a USA Today op-ed this week. “My 7-state tour will promote common-sense action.”

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Gabby Giffords Kicks Off Her 7-State Background Checks Tour By Firing a Handgun

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Virtually Everyone Favors a Path to Citizenship for Undocumented Immigrants

by Abe Smith Posted on June 20, 2013

Mother Jones

This is really a helluva mystery. A new Gallup poll shows that 87 percent of Americans favor a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants who are currently in the country. Only 12 percent oppose it. So where’s the opposition to comprehensive immigration reform coming from? I realize that intensity of feeling matters, but it doesn’t matter much when the opposition is so minuscule. If Gallup’s numbers are right, even a majority of tea partiers favor a path to citizenship.

So what’s going on here? Why are House Republicans apparently feeling so much pressure over this?

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Virtually Everyone Favors a Path to Citizenship for Undocumented Immigrants

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When You Get Right Down To It, Everything is Policy

by Abe Smith Posted on June 17, 2013

Mother Jones

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There’s a lot more heat than light in Edward Snowden’s live Q&A over at the Guardian, which is too bad. We could use more clarity on the scope of NSA’s surveillance. Along those lines, I was glad to see Josh Marshall picking up on this point:

For all the back and forth about Phoenixes and what exactly he expected a spy organization to do, the one interesting and significant thing to come out of this Snowden live chat is his focus on what is technically possible within the NSA vs whatever policy restrictions are in place to protect privacy, constitutional protections for US citizens and so forth. It’s not even totally clear, reading these answers, how much Snowden and his nemeses within the Intel Community are even disagreeing about how things work.

I’d guess there’s not much disagreement at all. After all, Snowden has so far presented no evidence that NSA has abused its statutory powers. He obviously doesn’t like NSA’s statutory powers, but that’s a different thing. At one point, for example, he says that the focus on whether NSA is sweeping up domestic communications is a “distraction from the power and danger of this system. Suspicionless surveillance does not become okay simply because it’s only victimizing 95% of the world instead of 100%.” Maybe so, but spying on foreigners is NSA’s whole reason for existence.

And that gets to the nub of things: If you simply disapprove of spying on foreigners, then you’re obviously not going to think much of the NSA. But that’s a disagreement with U.S. policy, not a criticism of the agency itself.

Ditto for Snowden’s comments about NSA being restricted only by “policy.” Well, of course that’s what restricts them. Once the technical capability is available to do something, then policy is always the only restriction. That policy can take the form of laws, of executive orders, of court oversight, or of internal NSA rules. Some of those are better than others, and all are subject to abuse if oversight is poor, but they’re all policies. Pointing this out is like saying that Social Security is insecure because it’s merely a policy of the federal government. That’s true, but what isn’t?

NOTE: There is, of course, a difference between Social Security and NSA surveillance. They’re both creatures of policy, but NSA’s actions are largely constrained by secret policies. That’s a legitimate beef. The simple fact that NSA’s constraints are policy-based isn’t.

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When You Get Right Down To It, Everything is Policy

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Find A Good Solar Panel Contractor Without Any Effort

by Abe Smith Posted on June 3, 2013

Whether a home improvement project is large or small, if it is important to you, you should consider getting professional help. Hiring a good solar panel installation contractor is the first important matter to address, and it can also be the most challenging. But the following tips can help you start on the right foot and end with a bang!

Compromise can be beneficial, but some things deserve higher quality over saving money. Going for cheap finishes on different products can lead to a need to replace earlier and ultimately cost more money. Sometimes spending a bit more in the beginning is well worth it in the long run. Sometimes the types of materials used are evident in extremely high or low bids and these extremes may be best avoided.

If you require the solar panel installation contractor to report his work you will be able to keep a track of what he is doing daily. This will help you to make sure that all jobs will be completed on time and completely. Also, interview them before hand and make sure that their priorities match yours.

Depending on what state you are in you might need a solar panel installation contractor with a license. Ask for a license up front and do a search of the license online on the state licensing website. If the search comes up positive then you are set to go but if it was negative you will run into issues.

It is very important to get a written and signed agreement from the solar panel installation contractor before you start the work. The agreement consists of the details related to the time frame and project requirements. Once the contractor has begun work, make sure you keep the follow up from time to time to check whether the contractor is faithfully following the agreement or not.

To avert incidences whereby a lien is placed on you when the solar panel installation contractor fails to pay up the suppliers all the materials, it is wise to ensure that they give you a lien release. This protects you from incurring any extra costs since it is never a guarantee that after paying the contractor they will consequently pay their suppliers.

Some solar panel installation contractors will work on multiple works concurrently. Confirm they have sufficient time in their schedule to take on your project. If they already have too many jobs scheduled, you should be reluctant to hire them as they may not be able to fit your work into their schedule.

Ask for various references from your family, friends for a solar panel installation contractor. Word of mouth and testimonials can be essential in finding a reliable contractor. Contact the numbers on the contractor’s cards to be sure that the contact details are genuine.

The main responsibility of a solar panel installation contractor is to communicate with solar panel experts. This makes you relief from over burden work and from contacting multiple people. All you need is to hire a good responsible contractor, who understands his duty and pay the solar panel experts with honesty.

Just visit any large search engine and search for solar panels if you need additional useful suggestions about solar tucson.

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