Author Archives: KatiaSimas

America’s Cops Shoot More People Than Criminals Do in These Countries

by KatiaSimas Posted on June 3, 2015

Mother Jones

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If the current trend continues, police are on track to fatally shoot nearly 1,000 Americans by the end of the year. If you took that number alone, the United States would still have a higher per capita firearm-related murder rate than most of the world’s developed nations’, according to an analysis by Vocativ.

Vocativ compiled data from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime and found that police shootings in the United States outnumber all gun-homicides in France, England, Germany, Chile, Canada, and 25 other developed nations. Here’s how those figures line up, using 2013 data:

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America’s Cops Shoot More People Than Criminals Do in These Countries

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Living close to a fracking well could have given you that rash

by KatiaSimas Posted on September 10, 2014

Living close to a fracking well could have given you that rash

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10 Sep 2014 5:53 PM

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Living close to a fracking well could have given you that rash

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Go outside your house right now. I don’t care if it’s raining! Just do it.

Good. Now, measure the distance between your front door and the nearest fracking well. (To determine, first and foremost, whether or not this exercise will be productive, please consult this map.)

Is the distance less than 0.6 miles? GREAT! Just kidding, that’s actually terrible news — you may be more susceptible to a whole slew of fun medical problems. What kind? Oh, rashes, eczema, sinus problems, and headaches, for starters. Woof.

A new study from Yale University – claimed by the lead author to be the largest of its kind – shows a correlation between living in proximity to a fracking well and symptoms of skin and upper respiratory problems.

The study, which was published today, surveyed 180 households in Washington Co., Pa., which lies about 30 miles south of Pittsburgh and has developed into a hotbed of fracking activity in recent years – the county now plays host to over 1,000 wells. It specifically sampled houses dependent on ground-fed water wells, which can be susceptible to contamination from chemicals used in fracking.

The results? Those who lived less than 0.6 miles away from a well were twice as likely to report health issues as their friends who lived over 1.2 miles from it.

But as anyone who’s ever half-dozed through a semester of ECON101 (for shame!) well knows, correlation does not imply causation. The study’s lead author, Peter Rabinowitz, is quick to emphasize that.

However (from the New Haven Register):

“It’s more of an association than a causation,” Rabinowitz said. “We want to make sure people know it’s a preliminary study. … To me it strongly indicates the need to further investigate the situation and not ignore it.”

Particularly in light of recent revelations about the state of healthcare and fracking in Pennsylvania, our response to Rabinowitz is: Yes, yes, a thousand times yes!

Source:
Yale study: Health problems found in people living near fracking wells

, New Haven Register.

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Living close to a fracking well could have given you that rash

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Quote of the Day: "We Don’t Have a Strategy Yet."

by KatiaSimas Posted on August 28, 2014

Mother Jones

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From President Obama, asked if he needs congressional approval to go into Syria:

I don’t want to put the cart before the horse. We don’t have a strategy yet.

That’s not going to go over well, is it? Three years after the Syrian civil war started and (at least) half a year after ISIS became a serious threat in Iraq, you’d think the president might be willing to essay a few broad thoughts about how we should respond.

Don’t get me wrong. I think I understand what Obama is doing here. He’s basically trying to avoid saying that we do have a strategy, and the strategy is to do the absolute minimum possible in service of a few very limited objectives. And generally speaking, I happen to agree that this is probably the least worst option available to us. Still, there’s no question that it’s not very inspiring. You’d think the brain trust in the White House would have given a little more thought to how this could be presented in a tolerably coherent and decisive way.

In the meantime, “We don’t have a strategy yet” is about to become the latest 24/7 cable news loop. Sigh.

Oh, and the tan suit too. It’s quite the topic of conversation in the Twittersphere.

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Quote of the Day: "We Don’t Have a Strategy Yet."

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