Nuclear Revival and Leaded Gasoline

The website “Damn Interesting” has a great article on the history of Thomas Midgley and leaded gasoline, who might be considered a scientific pariah for inventing both leaded gas (health effects) and CFCs (ozone effects). In “The Ethyl Poisoned Earth” we learn that the health effects of lead were well known in the 1920’s and 1930’s, as corporate types continually lied to the public over and over and over, covered it up over and over and over, and influenced political attempts to address it over and over and over. Sound familiar? (DDT, global warming, smoking, etc)

And the Utne Reader has an article, “Atomic Dreams,” which talks about the revival of the nuclear industry in light of global warming and some arguments that it’s a necessary evil to deal with global energy needs.

20 Things You Have to Believe to be a Republican

This has been posted in numerous places online, but I thought I’d continue the virus (Source):

1. Being a drug addict is a moral failing and a crime, unless you’re a conservative radio host. Then it’s an illness and you need our prayers for your recovery.

2. The United States should get out of the United Nations, and our highest national priority is enforcing U.N. resolutions against Iraq.

3. Government should relax regulation of Big Business and Big Money but crack down on individuals who use marijuana to relieve the pain of illness.

4. “Standing Tall for America” means firing your workers and moving their jobs to India.

5. A woman can’t be trusted with decisions about her own body, but multinational corporations can make decisions affecting all humankind without regulation.

6. Jesus loves you, and shares your hatred of homosexuals and Hillary Clinton.

7. The best way to improve military morale is to praise the troops in speeches while slashing veterans’ benefits and combat pay.

8. Group sex and drug use are degenerate sins unless you someday run for governor of California as a Republican.

9. If condoms are kept out of schools, adolescents won’t have sex.

10. A good way to fight terrorism is to belittle our longtime allies, then demand their cooperation and money.

11. HMOs and insurance companies have the interest of the public at heart.

12. Providing health care to all Iraqis is sound policy. Providing health care to all Americans is socialism.

13. Global warming and tobacco’s link to cancer are junk science, but creationism should be taught in schools.

14. Saddam was a good guy when Reagan armed him, a bad guy when Bush’s daddy made war on him, a good guy when Cheney did business with him and a bad guy when Bush needed a “we can’t find Bin Laden” diversion.

15. A president lying about an extramarital affair is an impeachable offense. A president lying to enlist support for a war in which thousands die is a solid defense policy.

16. Government should limit itself to the powers named in the Constitution, which include banning gay marriages and censoring the Internet.

17. The public has a right to know about Hillary’s cattle trades, but George Bush’s driving record is none of our business.

18. You support states’ rights, which means Attorney General John Ashcroft can tell states what local voter initiatives they have a right to adopt.

19. What Bill Clinton did in the 1960s is of vital national interest, but what Bush did in the 1980s is irrelevant.

20. Trade with Cuba is wrong because the country is communist; but trade with China and Vietnam is vital to a spirit of international harmony.

[Update 1/5/08: It's pretty sweet when your blog has thousands of hits, not because of something intelligent you wrote (if I've in fact done that), but because of humerous crap that you passed along.]

Talking Jesus Is From China – Is He Made of Lead?

 

The genius that is capitalism and religion have paired up to offer the Talking Jesus doll at Wal-Mart and Target (Source). Indeed, I just heard about it on NPR…

Of course, the easy media angle is whether Jesus will out compete traditional toys, i.e. will kids play with it? Some even call it the next religious Tickle-Me-Elmo. Whatever…too easy. Softball news garbage. The next easiest controversy is whether it’s some kind of heresy to make a Jesus doll in the first place. Another whatever.

What I immediately thought of is whether Talking Jesus was made in China, whether he was made of plastic (PVC – poly-vinyl-chloride), and if he would be dogged by the lead controversy.

Wouldn’t that be fitting? It’s cheap toy crap, no matter what veil you put on it…And the religious do-gooders couldn’t think ahead of short-term cheapness.

In fact, he is made of PVC and is made in China. I can’t answer the lead question without an independent laboratory test, but it wouldn’t surprise me one bit…The toy recalls for plastic toys made in China are an obvious source to base that on (NYTimes).

Who cares about PVC? Well, to start it’s not exactly safe to produce (Building Green). And PVC can contain phlalates to make it flexible/pliable, which course aren’t very good to ingest, ala BPA plastic concerns.

This isn’t new, just newly discovered. A few years ago I bought a measuring tape at Target that was plastic and a sticker on the box, saying it contained lead and I should wash my hands after using. I returned it.

So how about it? Can someone test Jesus to see if he’s made of lead?