Posted in economy, politics, technology, tagged abundant, advancements, alternative, balance, Big Oil, blame, brown energy, bullet train, buzzword, capital, clean, collaborative, collective, commodities, cooperative, crisis, debate, define, drilling, economy, efficient, environmentalists, food, food insecurity, fuel, future, geothermal, gouging, Green, highway, history, hovercraft, imagine, incentives, inflation, infrastructure, innovation, invention, Iran, jobs, market, myths, not in my backyard, oil, partisan, partnership, petro, petro hoarding, political, Popular Science, power, price hikes, prices, private, privatize, profit, progress, public, pump, railroad, renewable, renewable resources, resource, rhetoric, risk, role, scarcity, solution, space, speculation, subsidy, surge, sustainable, tax break, technology, transportation, truth, values, venture capital, vision, water, wind, world, WPA on March 18, 2012 |
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Quick! What type of world did you imagine when you were a kid? Did you foresee yourself darting about in a hovercraft much like the cartoon family in the Jetsons? Vacationing on the moon? A lean, mean greener world? How is it that we find ourselves these many years, decades even, down the road and we’re still looking at a society that in so many ways is what it once was: the world that petroleum built? Decades after the Carter-era gasoline shortages, now with the prospect of $6 gasoline looming before us, we have little to show for our grand hopes and great visions. We’re still talking about moving off foreign oil even as the buzzword “energy independence” has become firmly entrenched in our lexicon. So little, so late.
What happened? (more…)
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Posted in health, politics, tagged air, alarms, Americans, awareness, Basel Convention Treaty, Bed bath and beyond, best interest, cancer, cancer foundations, catastrophe, CDC, cesium iodine, Chernobyl, China, china syndrome, chronic, cleanup, clearance levels, colbalt-60, conflicts of interest, consumer, consumer safety, contamination, cure, DDREF, dirty bomb, DOE, donations, dose, dosimeters, Dual Ridge, elements, energy, energy policy, experiment, export, exposure, FDA, food, Fukushima, goods, holder, homegoods, hot metal, hot spoons, human health, illegal, import, India, informed, ionizing, isotopes, Japan, Japanese, lab rats, LNT, low-level waste, manufactured, media, medical waste, meltdown, metal, nuclear, nuclear lobby, outlaw, Petkau effect, plutonium, politicians, power, precautionary principle, products, public debate, public health, radioactive, recycle, regulation, risk, safe, scrap, silent, status, Tatara Group, terrorism, Third World, threat, tissue box, toxic, treatment, unacceptable, unsafe, uranium, US, water, x-ray on January 13, 2012 |
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In the scare-of-the-week news story we learn that Bed, Bath & Beyond may have distributed radioactive tissue holders across the country.
It allegedly started when just four metal tissue box covers buried in a transport truck set off radiation detectors installed after 911 to protect us from a terrorist threat. Who knew truck-stop Geiger counters would also serve to protect us, apparently, from made-in India? But are mass exporters like China and India really to blame for these all-too-common consumer product scares?
Perhaps not.
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Posted in economy, politics, tagged 80 percent, A380, accountable for, airliner, Americans spend less, baby formula, barriers, bioregionalism, car, Carnival, chain, China, Chinese spend more, CNN, consumers, contractor, cost cutting, crankcase, Credit Suisse, cruise, currency war, cut corners, defects, devaluation, doctrine, dogma, Dollar, Dong Tao, downsides, drugs, eco-friendly, economic engine, ecoregionalism, electronics, emergency, emerging power, engine, failure, fake, fakes, faulty, FDA, Federal Reserve, fire, flimsy, food, G-20, G20, globalisation, globalization, going broke, Green Revolution, grounded, hazards, imitation, improved, jet, job losses, knockoff, landing, leading economy by 2012, leveling the playing field, liberalization, lifestyle realignment, lost income, lower, manufacturers, market, medications, melamine, military gear, mineral, natural resources, news, out of luck, parts, passenger, pets, port, post-American, produce, production, productivity, protectionism, protectionist, protest, Qantas, quality assurance, quantitative easing, rebalance, recalls, recession, recession here to stay, replicas, responsibility, risk, Rolls-Royce, runs out, safety, salaries, scarcity, shady, ship, shocking, shoddy, shortage, Splendor, supplier, sustainability movement, tariffs, tensions, track record, trade liberalization, trade war, treason, treasury bills, troops, turnover, U.S., unemployment, Veteran's Day, wages, way of life, who is to blame for, workmanship, world economy on November 12, 2010 |
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Last week: A late-model Qantas A380 jet engine disintegrates mid-air, with passengers lucky to have survived the ensuing in-flight trauma. This week: A two-year-old Carnival cruise ship is towed into a San Diego, California port after an engine crankcase spontaneously splits open, erupting in fire. Passengers in this case, too, were lucky that the worst they suffered was cold food, limited electrical power and non-operable toilets. And in what would have been shocking 10 years ago, news of contaminated meat, recalled produce and unsafe drugs are now so routine that most of us shrug it off.
In such situations, the finger-pointing tends to be brand, manufacturer or supplier-specific. Indeed, it is tempting to chalk up such news to a series of unfortunate flukes. But is that the best and brightest lesson we can draw — or does our mainstream news media tend to downplay or disregard the Big Picture?
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