Can you just imagine seeing this in person? Reminds me of a scaled down version of the Tunguska Event from the early 20th century.
TPM collected nine stunning videos of the blast. Greg Mitchell has more.
Juan Cole asks what if it had been bigger and includes a simulation of the blast a six mile wide asteroid like the one thought to have wiped out the dinosaurs. Blast equivalent? 300 million nuclear bombs.
Friday, February 15, 2013
Thursday, February 14, 2013
Hey Cigarette Smokers, Maybe We Should Stop Flicking Our Butts?: Gothamist
Nice to see a smoker put this on print. Littering is a major pet peeve of mine, and smokers aren't exempt.
Tossing your butts on the ground, in the gutter, or out the window of your vehicle is lazy, selfish and disgusting behavior. It's also bad for the environment, as that detritus ends up in our rivers and on beaches. And of course, there are the occasional fires.
I'd be happy if the City passed a law with a relatively low fine specific to butt littering (comparable to a parking ticket) and handed them out aggressively. As it is I have never once seen a littering citation issued, even when a smoker throws down right in front of a police officer. I don't know how this has just come to be accepted behavior, but it shouldn't be.
http://gothamist.com/2013/02/14/smokers_guide.php
More info here:
Tossing your butts on the ground, in the gutter, or out the window of your vehicle is lazy, selfish and disgusting behavior. It's also bad for the environment, as that detritus ends up in our rivers and on beaches. And of course, there are the occasional fires.
I'd be happy if the City passed a law with a relatively low fine specific to butt littering (comparable to a parking ticket) and handed them out aggressively. As it is I have never once seen a littering citation issued, even when a smoker throws down right in front of a police officer. I don't know how this has just come to be accepted behavior, but it shouldn't be.
http://gothamist.com/2013/02/14/smokers_guide.php
More info here:
De Blasio Blasts Quinn’s Affordable Housing Plan as ‘Multi-Billion Dollar Giveaway’ to Developers | Observer
This is pretty amazing, and I think a serious misstep for Chris Quinn.
The background, from the Times this morning:
Bloomberg's State of the City Address
Politicker focuses on easing the draconian treatment of people caught with marijuana, which, great, but … why did it take 12 years? What a colossal waste of money and policing resources and disaster for people processed through the system.
Interesting to me was the long overdue new recycling facility that will open nearby on Brooklyn's industrial waterfront this spring. No longer will I have to remove all manner of plastics from my neighbors' recycling because they mean well, but NYC doesn't recycle well:
""We'll also take major new steps toward another important sustainability goal that we've set: Doubling the city's recycling rate to 30 percent by 2017. Under Sanitation Commissioner John Doherty's leadership, we've created a comprehensive plan to achieve that goal. It starts with making recycling easier for everyone – by putting 1,000 new recycling containers on streets in all five boroughs this year. We'll also make it possible to recycle more plastics.
"As part of our solid waste management plan, a private company – SIMS – will open the largest household recycling plant in North America on the Sunset Park waterfront. The facility is raised four feet above grade – and came through Sandy just fine. When it opens this spring, it will accept all kinds of plastics – from salad containers to CD cases. It will create up to 100 jobs and have a state of the art education center to teach children about recycling. In addition, the plant will be powered by one of the largest solar installations in our city – and the largest wind turbine to operate here since the Dutch built windmills in New Amsterdam. The CEO of the SIMS recycling center, Bob Kellman, is in the audience today, and I want to thank him for helping us build a greener future."
New York DMV No Longer Describes Traffic Crashes as “Accidents”
Seems like a small change, but language is important. This is an excellent change, which basically costs nothing, but improves communication with a more accurate (and shorter) noun. As Streetsblog notes, not only is the term "accident" a bad descriptor, it also functions to remove accountability. Oh I ran someone over while texting? It was an accident! Cheers to NYS DMV for ending their part in this corruption of language. George Carlin would have been pleased.
"A vehicle crash encompasses a wider range of potential causes than does the term accident. An accident implies something that is not preventable. A majority of crashes are caused by intoxicated, speeding, distracted, or careless drivers and, therefore, are not accidents. That is why the term "crashes" is used not only by the New York State DMV, but also by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration."
Typos courtesy of my iPhone
Stop Means Testing Everything
Once again I'm going to take Atrios' entire post, because its spot on.
I only noticed this morning that Obama's universal pre-k proposal
included the bone-headed idea of means testing at twice the poverty
level. That's not universal, and it breeds resentment among a large
swath of the population. It's bad policy and worse politics.
"People care about high marginal tax rates except the high marginal
tax rates faced by a lot of not-so-well-off people. When you start
clawing back deductions and tax credits and add additional means
testing to programs, you make the effective marginal tax rate for
people, over some range of income, very high.
Universal pre-k should be universal and universally free."
http://www.eschatonblog.com/2013/02/stop-means-testing-everything.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+blogspot/bRuz+(Eschaton)&m=1
Typos courtesy of my iPhone
I only noticed this morning that Obama's universal pre-k proposal
included the bone-headed idea of means testing at twice the poverty
level. That's not universal, and it breeds resentment among a large
swath of the population. It's bad policy and worse politics.
"People care about high marginal tax rates except the high marginal
tax rates faced by a lot of not-so-well-off people. When you start
clawing back deductions and tax credits and add additional means
testing to programs, you make the effective marginal tax rate for
people, over some range of income, very high.
Universal pre-k should be universal and universally free."
http://www.eschatonblog.com/2013/02/stop-means-testing-everything.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+blogspot/bRuz+(Eschaton)&m=1
Typos courtesy of my iPhone
Happy Valentine's Day! Free Concert While You Wait
A pleasant surprise on my commute this morning. This is the second time I've seen these guys, a bluegrass influenced duo. This time I caught the name, "Mountain Animation". They're actually quite good and actually a three man band.
They have an album for sale (digital download) and you can listen to the tunes on their website.
Typos courtesy of my iPhone
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