James’s Blog

Here is an example.

More here. (Via Andrew Sullivan.)

This New York Times article was the impetus for me to submit photos to various online stock photography sites. I got rejected at Shutterstock, and learned that they really care about the noise level in the photos. Since you can’t reapply at Shutterstock for another 30 days, I reapplied at iStockPhoto, and a few of the pictures have been accepted so far. Here is my portfolio.

This is happening in Whiting, IN, 25 miles from where I live. Here is the summary of the excellent Tribune article:

• BP wants to expand their facility to refine heavier Canadian crude oil. This costs 3.8 billion dollars. There will be 80 new jobs.
• BP wants to release 54 percent more ammonia and 35 percent more sludge into Lake Michigan each day, bringing the total to, on average, 1,584 pounds of ammonia and 4,925 pounds of sludge. The total wastewater flow into Lake Michigan will remain at a constant 21 million gallons a day.
• BP says they can’t clean the wastewater because they don’t have room to build additional cleaning facilities. State and federal officials agree.
• The sludge amount matches the maximum amount allowed under federal guideline. Even so, the Clean Water Act prohibits any downgrade in water quality near a pollution source even if discharge limits are met. BP got around this rule by mixing the waste water with fresh water 200 feet offshore. This is actually against Indiana law, but the state officials granted an exception. Federal officials do nothing.

We wouldn’t expect the federal officials under this administration to do anything to improve (or simply stop degrading) our lives. But the Indiana officials don’t have enough foresight to realize that those 80 jobs aren’t going to last if there’s some economic downturn, while the heavy metal in the sludge will probably be around for a few centuries. They apprently learned nothing from the experiences in Michigan, where cities remain broken and polluted after the auto industry left.

BP spends billions on expansion, but has no money to, say, cart off the waste to some remote corner of Indiana hinterland. Instead BP dumps the waste into the lake that is the water source for millions. It’s as if they’re deliberately trying to offset their green image.

Where do homosexuals get all their energy? I often wonder the same. I didn’t even know what jicama is.

A few choice quotes:

But a homosexual can sit for hours in Barney’s tirelessly trying on dozens of pairs, and when he finds the one he wants, why, he’s ready to wear those shoes out to a homosexual club and dance all night. What vim!

Or they go jogging in an urban riverside park and take their dogs with them. And as they do these things, they effortlessly carry on the most sparkling conversations filled with witty bon mots and juicy innuendo.

The water level at Lake Superior is about 10 inches below normal and near its recorded historical low. At least the NOAA chart above doesn’t look quite like Bush’s approval rating just yet. Who knows if this is due to global warming or some sort of natural cycle, or if this even matters in the long run, but the look of the landscape has already been affected. The effect is probably most pronounced near the Mosquito area.

Mosquito camp, 2004

Mosquito camp, 2007

That’ll reduce the mosquito problem at Mosquito! More comparisons after the jump.

Continue Reading »