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Cool New Russian Police Trucks

Posted by Average Voter on Friday, October 31, 2008 6:59:37 PM
   Here are some photo's of a new Russian police vehicle/offroad crawler.
 
Russian police car 4
I wonder if they have a hybrid version?
 
Yet, when it comes to efficient police cars, Germany is all over it.
 
I like the Italian police cars the best...
Lamborghini Gallardo LP560-4 Polizia wallpaper # 05 - 800x600
 
 
 
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Strange Statistics

Posted by Average Voter on Thursday, October 30, 2008 7:40:16 PM
   Here is an article from The Huffington Post and Sloan Barnett, qouting child asthma, leukemia, and brain cancer statistics.
 
* The incidence of acute lymphocytic leukemia in children has increased more than 27 percent between 1973 and 1990.
* The incidence of childhood brain cancer increased almost 40 percent between 1973 and 1994.
* The incidence of the male genital defect hypospadias doubled, and the rate of testicular cancer among young men (age twenty to thirty-nine) rose by nearly 70 percent between 1973 and 1994.

   I thought these statistics were a little strange being there is nothing after 1994. So I did a little digging (about 20 minutes online) and found a lot that just does not jive with her assurtion. I found this, which is some different studies finding an increase in childrens Leukemia, but the study also found a similar decrease in the same type of Leukemia in people over 65. So what is that telling us? That either the study is not correct, or the environment is not the cause, as Barnett is implying, being people over 65 breath the same air and are probably just as likely to encounter the same chemicals as someone under the age of 19.
   Then I found this article in which the National Cancer Institute clearly states they take issue with these statistics.
It is easy to imply things, but hard to prove them. So many things in the green world are based on theory and the abstract, so read and believe carefully!
 
Maybe it's the overhead power lines causing Leukemia.
Maybe it's the Flu?
Maybe it is your economic status?
 
You know what? Maybe they simply don't know!
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Getting Out The Green Vote-Al Gore Style

Posted by Average Voter on Thursday, October 30, 2008 6:45:26 PM
   Our buddy Al Gore has teamed up with Power Team Vote and have made a video urging people to vote green.
Hmmm, I wonder which candidate is more green?
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California Just Has To Be Different

Posted by Average Voter on Tuesday, October 28, 2008 7:33:29 PM
   The ports in California have decided that commercial trucks that haul frieght in and out of those ports have to have super clean emissions. So, just like cars in the 70's in California had to meet different emission standards than everywhere else in the nation, now it is turning the same way with trucks today.
   As of this year all new trucks sold have to have this sticker (below) on nose of the truck just to satisfy the state of California that the truck complies with their idling standards.
California clean idle labels
 
   According to this article from the LA Times, the state is trying to push it even farther. Earlier this month the state put in place new rules on older trucks.
    I wonder how many small trucking companies that can't afford brand new $100,00 trucks were put out of business?
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The Nuclear Option

Posted by Average Voter on Tuesday, October 28, 2008 7:10:53 PM
   It really is such a 60's thing...evil nuclear power, bombs, radiation, mutually assured destruction. And little has changed over the years.

This recent German study found childhood leukemia rates near nuclear power plants were 117 percent higher than the country’s national average. Exposure to radiation (whether naturally occurring, via X-ray, or from chemotherapy) is one of the top listed causes of childhood leukemia.

So, it would be irresponsible of me not to comment on McCain’s apparent disdain for our children’s health as expressed this week in Iowa.
 
   The difference these days is they like to add the old cliche of "it's about the children". Pulling on those heart strings.
 
Here is a good article from Mother Jones on getting back to the basics of nuclear energy, especially since we have not buiilt one in almost 30 years.
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Remember The Ozone Hole?

Posted by Average Voter on Sunday, October 26, 2008 11:01:13 AM
   A new study out this week (via smalldeadanimals) questions the old CFC (chlorofluorocarbons) being the causeof ozone depletion. Now it seems that maybe it has more to do with the 11 year solar cycle and the cosmic rays reacting with chlorine in polar clouds.
 
   The fact is, as with so many other things in the Earth sciences, we are still learning, and this just proves once again that scientific testing and proof must trump scientific selling of theory.
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Common Sense On The Climate Hype

Posted by Average Voter on Friday, October 24, 2008 7:56:30 PM
   Such a simple answer to what has always been the thing that bothers me the most about the global warming hype.
 
“It’s going to cause sea levels to rise!” cry the coastal scientists and fisheries experts. “It will massively displace wildlife!” scream the biological scientists. “It will prolong droughts and intensify rainfalls,” warn the geologists and agricultural scientists. Their wailing fills up their applications for billions of dollars in grants from governments and sympathetic nonprofit foundations.

But these outcries miss the point, because they do not address the core issue of whether the temperature uptick (of one degree Celsius) over the last century is attributable chiefly to man’s influence and thus mitigable, or to natural fluctuations and that nothing can be done about it. In other words, the vast majority of research (80 percent? 90 percent? more?) tied to climate change has nothing to do with its cause.
 
   Thank you...Thank you very much!
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An Endangered Species Joke

Posted by Average Voter on Friday, October 24, 2008 7:32:01 PM
   This was actually the last place I expected to find this article. It seems that once upon a time, a tribe of Native Americans applied  for a spot on the Endangered Species Act list. Read the response...Snowflakes was right, I almost cried I was laughing so hard!
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Carbon Credit Values in Europe Sinking

Posted by Average Voter on Friday, October 24, 2008 5:20:00 PM
   Yet another reason why cap and trade doesn't work. I have forgotten how many times I have tried to point this out.

With more permits sloshing around Europe’s carbon market, other polluters like big utilities who have fewer permits than they need are likely to snap up cheaper permits instead of investing now to clean up their operations. (Earlier in the year, European utilties were already burning more coal and buying permits to offset their emissions.)

This is not what environmentalists had in mind when they backed cap-and-trade as a way to ratchet down greenhouse-gas emissions. For the system to really spur change, the carbon price has to be high enough to give an incentive for polluters to install cleaner technologies or move to cleaner fuels. Capturing carbon emissions from coal plants and sticking them underground, for example, will cut emissions but will be expensive. A carbon price below 40 euros a ton tends to make “clean coal” economically unattractive.
 
   The best of intentions, yet just another stupid government program that doesn't work. The sad thing is both Barack Obama and
John McCain are for this dumb idea as well.
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Asbestos Good For Some But Not For Us

Posted by Average Voter on Friday, October 24, 2008 4:59:04 PM
   In Canada, low-risk asbestos is still being mined and sold to developing countries even though it is not allowed for use in Canada's own construction.
 
   The sad truth is asbestos continues to be a sacred cow to governments because the lone surviving mine with its 700 jobs is located in the one-industry Quebec town of Thetford Mines.

But how Canada can argue that a commodity the government says is too dangerous to permit in domestic construction is okey-dokey for a developing world where safety measures are far less stringent is a headscratcher.

The government spends millions on international sales campaigns using its diplomats and embassies to unleash one-sided positive views against widely acknowledged dangers about asbestos exposure, which is highly unethical behaviour.

Hypocritical? Dangerous? You decide.
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Recycled Halloween Customes

Posted by Average Voter on Friday, October 24, 2008 4:40:56 PM
   From The Daily Green comes this list of really exciting recycled halloween costumes.
 
Your kids will love this one!
They might speak to you again in a year...
 
You will be the life of the party in this outfit!
 
I am honestly not sure were you get all the dolls for this one.
 
 
Well, there you go. Just a few of the great ideas to be more green this halloween season.
 
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Results Of Energy Socialism

Posted by Average Voter on Friday, October 24, 2008 11:40:27 AM
   Hugo Chavez and his "spread the wealth" socialism just doesn't work, and it is being proven with it's energy policies.

The problem suggests that Chavez, with his ambitious international alliances and promises to end capitalism, risks alienating supporters by failing to focus on basic issues like electricity, trash collection and law enforcement.

"With so much energy in Venezuela, how can we be without power?" asked Fernando Aponte, 49, whose slum neighborhood of Las Delicias in San Felix spent 15 days without electricity -- leading him to block a nearby avenue with burning tires in protest.
 
   Socialsm is just another failed idea that we humans never seem to want to let go of. The problem is, even here in the U.S. we are coming to expect the government to fix our problems. What happened to the times when we had some pride? When we didn't want the governments help, we got up and fought through out problems until we solved them ourselves. Today we want someone to get us out of our trouble; we think the government is who we need to turn too. And when the government fails to help, then what do you do? You have already given them the power. You fight back, and find that the government doesn't really care about you.
   Same old story, differnt time.
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PA Women Told To Leave Chemical-Free Bubble

Posted by Average Voter on Friday, October 24, 2008 10:37:35 AM
   Elizabeth Feudale-Bowes of Allentown, Pennsylvania was diagnosed with "environmental illness" several years ago, which keeps her in a home made chemical free "shed" she and her husband built in their yard. Problem is they didn't get proper permits or clear the proper safety regulations in the area. Now they have been told it has to come down.

This bubble, though, may be about to burst: A judge has ordered it taken down by the end of the month.

Some of the couple's neighbors in suburban South Whitehall Township complained that the 160-square-foot building is unstable and so unsightly it could drag down their property values. The couple also hooked up electrical, water and sewer service without securing permits.

"For the wife's medical problems, there is sympathy. For the owner's defiance of the township's lawful directives, there is no excuse," Judge Carol McGinley ruled earlier this month.

   The part I find intersting is the strange physical diagnosis that was given her.
 
   Some doctors question whether environmental illness is a genuine physical disorder and suggest it is psychological. Feudale-Bowles says she was diagnosed by Dr. William Rea of Texas, who has been accused by the Texas Medical Board of promoting "pseudoscience." He vigorously disputes the charge and continues to see patients.
   Feudale-Bowes says fabric softener, nail polish, perfume, new sneakers, upholstery and many other items can make her body go haywire. She says she has suffered from a range of chronic ailments, including migraines, joint pain, bladder inflammation, seizures and temporary paralysis. Her insides, she says, have sometimes felt like "fire with ground glass in it."
 
   Sounds terrible, but I would imagine that if she went to a real doctor and get some real testing done she may find a real answer to her ailments. I would seriously have to question the legitimacy of the Dr. William Rea's diagnosis.
   ABC's Nightline did a piece on Dr. Rea back in March of this year, questioning his environmental illness claims. After reading the article. it would seem to me that he may be providing a benefit for those that have more of a mental condition rather than a physical condition. So , if what he does helps these folks, well, good for them. Now as to whether or not insurance companies should have to pay for this, that is another story. I would say no, only because until his methods are sifted through the normal medical studies and reviews, people who want this kind of treatment should have to pay for it themselves.
 
 
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Halloween 13

Posted by Average Voter on Thursday, October 23, 2008 9:08:57 PM
   Here is a funny twist on Halloween and the climate.
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Halloween Horror

Posted by Average Voter on Thursday, October 23, 2008 8:56:15 PM
   Another bad year for the pumpkin, according to the Gristmill.
pumpkin.jpg
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