7 Eco-Myths "Debunked" Article is Bunk Itself

7 Eco-Myth Debunked

This article made my brain hurt. Let's just go through each of the "myths" they "debunked" shall we?

1. Local food is not always better.

The buy local movement is a strong current in the river of environmentalism, and for a good reason: It does make good sense to keep your money and shopping close to home ... but not always. Local food isn't always better. There are many things you have to consider when assessing the environmental impact of a food item. Besides just how far it traveled from field to market, consider how the food was harvested, processed, stored and transported.

YES! TRANSPORTED! THAT'S THE POINT OF THE "BUY LOCAL" THING! If your food traveled 3000 miles or more, I'd be amazed if it was better than getting something from 100 miles away (unless it traveled by rail). It also helps your local economy! Notice the author implicitly acknowledges that local food is usually better: "but not always." You could pretty much apply that to everything! And guess what? That's pretty much how the whole list goes.

2. Big farms aren't evil.

Freelance journalist Tracie McMillan found that some workers prefer the benefits and consistency of a larger operation. Big farms are also more likely to be visited by government inspectors, and there is something to be said for the efficiency gained from a large-scale operation. We certainly need to support small farms, but we shouldn't dismiss all big farms as evil.

Same tactic here: big farms aren't always evil. He doesn't discuss the horror to the planet that monoculture farming is. Instead they use some vague labor argument, that starts with "some workers." And just because the government is inspecting a farm doesn't make it safe. The FDA and USDA don't really have any power thanks to the way the laws have been written. So there's no "eco-myth" debunked here.

3. CFLs are bad.

This one ends up saying CFLs are good! After going off about the amount of mercury in them, it says:

But consider this: the source of most of America's electricity, burning coal, releases lots of mercury into the atmosphere. The mercury generated from the extra electricity needed over the lifetime of an incandescent bulb is far more than the amount found in your average CFL bulb.

Nothing debunked.

4. Invasive Species are Good

Anytime an exotic animal is brought into a new environment, it frequently ends badly, but there are some places where that's not the case.

Same argument. "...there are some places...." You can find exceptions to everything somewhere. That doesn't mean you debunked anything.

5. The Rainforest Is Manmade

Rogue archaeologists Clark Erickson and William Balée believe the North and South American continents were populated by large and advanced civilizations that pulled off enormous feats of geoengineering, and the rain forest is a result of hundreds of years of fruit and nut tree cultivation by farmers. If we planted it once, that would mean we could plant it again.

NOT IF WE'RE TURNING IT INTO FARMS TO GROW CATTLE TO MAKE BURGERS FOR AMERICA! Besides, it's not just that there the rainforests are disappearing, it's what's IN the rainforests disappearing that is the problem. "Rogue archaeologist" seems to indicate to me that their hypothoses are generall discredited by peers.

6. Trees are bad.

The more trees, the better, right? Not always.

Same tactic. Not a good argument again.

7. Hybrid cars are bad.

There's no dispute that hybrid cars use gas more efficiently, but is a hybrid the best choice for everyone (and the planet) every time?

Again the argument is against absolutes. Seems like a hack-ish way to write an article to me.

This whole article is the kind of thing some crazy person would read and think something has been disproven when in fact it's all just common sense.

The most condescending thing about the whole article comes from #1: "Do your homework." That goes double for you, author.

I am in the new MANOWAR DVD!!!!!

There is about 1 entire second of me during the North America 2005 section of Manowar Hell On Earth Part V DVD at 38:17.

Here's a freeze frame:

My life is now complete!

Also that night, I met Rhapsody (of Fire)...

...and I got their setlist.

Hamburger James & Elvis

Don & Mike used to read the Hamburger James story every Xmas. Actually, Don would read it to Charly Stuang Stabilac. I found a version of the text. It's not as great reading it as it is to hear Don tell it, but here it is anyway.

Elvis' case of drugs he could carry with him was referred to as his "kit". And famously, once, the guy whose job it was to get Elvis hamburgers, Hamburger James, stole Elvis' kit. When Elvis found out, he was furious and tracked Hamburger James down at the airport. Hamburger James's plane was pulling out, and Elvis exclaimed "Stop that plane, I'm an FBI agent!" He flashed a badge famously given him by none other than Richard Nixon. So they stopped, and Elvis caught poor ole Hamburger James. No one in the entourage knew what Elvis would do. They knew he had a gun. He said he was going to kill him. This could be the end, the absolute end. Elvis raised a table, as if to smash him James with it, but then, as if coming to his senses, he set it down and hugged him. "If you needed something, all you had to do was ask...."

Now for some bonus Elvis Facts (also typically read by D&M):

• He liked to fill his swimming pool with lightbulbs and shoot them.
• He would shoot his TV screen whenever Robert Goulet would come on.
• He liked to climax in a woman's hair.
• He liked to use baby talk: he called feet "sooties" and ice cream "iddy-tream".
• Members of his Memphis Mafia would fill his pills with sugar, in an attempt to get him unaddicted.
• He would carve bit of flesh out of his feet, saying "I oughta get some good stuff for this."
• At the time of his death, his colon weighed around 30lbs.
• Doctors had to smash out Elvis's teeth in order to force a breathing tube down his throat.
• A young Elvis once saw his aunt dancing on a table, an exclaimed "Oh my peter!"

Happy Crimble!

Two Great Metal Videos

I hate Lamb of God (more like Lame of God), but this video is hilarious! I bailed the second the vocals game in, though.




This second one is similar to others involving the muppets, but the idea is very much the same.


I found these on the Top 10 Heavy Metal Viral Clips of 2009 from Metal Injection. The Black Metal Cooking one is good, but it's not as good as the Metal Chef was.

Jon Schaffer is Batshit Insane...

...but damn can he write a great song!

He just launched his "Sons of Liberty" project. Basically he took all his crazy ultra right-wing/libertarian craziness and released an album. Low-res versions of the mp3s are available from his website (which I will not link here) for free. You can also buy hi-res mp3s from him for $8, which I did. The website also has a bunch of recommended reading and links and such and it's all craziness. I can sum up the reading list in one sentence: He recommends a Ron Paul book. Not crazy enough for you? Further down the page, he recommends Glenn Beck.

But guess what? The songs are pretty damn good! ...Until the little soliloquies at the end of every song. A lot of them are presidential quotes that I would imagine are taken out of context. The lyrics are very Schaffer-y as well (i.e. poorly written). Think The Glorious Burden squared plus Fox News-inspired messages in every song. And of course the lyrics are batshit insane. For example, "Our Dying Republic" complains about the 'fascists' trying to take over the USA. It sounds like he performed the vocals on every song. He does a damn good job, too. I believe the drums are sampled. They sound better than the RVG drums though. Anyway the whole thing sounds a lot like newer Megadeth. (The connections between insane frontmen and their fantastic bands will have to come another day.)

Please, Jon. PLEASE stick to Iced Earth! Stick to Demons & Wizards! Write about horror! Write about Set Abominae. Write about ANYTHING ELSE. It gives me such a headache to both love the music and hate the message simultaneously.

Oh yeah, and how did he officially announce his project? On Alex Jones's radio show. Who is he? A 9/11 truther. Excuse me while I vomit.

Heavener Stone

Now that we've established that the Kensington Runestone is authentic, let's most on to some other Runestones found in the USA:

The Heavener Runestone was found in Oklahoma. Other runestones were said to have existed there but were destroyed in the 1930s and 1940s. It's far less interesting than the Kensington stone. This stone reads: "GNOMEDAL" (Gnome Valley). Or "G. Nomedal." Or "GLOME DAL" (Glome Valley). Or it could be a cryptogram for "November 11, 1012." Yeah, no one's very sure.

Either way, it is a local tourist attraction and a state park was built around the area.

Baltimore Blizzards' AHL Season

Warning: extreme nerding over a video game lies ahead.

Since the Baltimore Blizzards (my created team in NHL 2010) were slaughtered by Belarus in the World Tournament, it was decided to go "back to basics" and compete in the AHL somehow. The Blizzards replaced the now-defunct Iowa Chops for the season. Needless to say, the Blizzards went undefeated in the regular season.

For some reason I threw all the stats into a spreadsheet: BBZ AHL Season.

T. Regan (#9) had the most goals, most assists, most points, 3d most PIMS, 2d best +/-, and 4th most hits in the AHL.

D. Miller (#13) had the 2d most assists, 3d most points, most PIMS, 3d best +/-, and most hits in the AHL and the most goals of all defensemen.

A. El-Zeftawy (#26) had the 3d most assists, 6th most points, 2d most PIMS, best +/-, 2d most hits in the AHL and the 2d most goals of all defensemen.

The Blizzards had players with the 1st through 13th and 15th best +/- in the AHL

The Blizzards as a team had the most goals for (next team had 244), most goals for per game (next team had 3.05), fewest goals against (next team had 194), fewest power plays, most times shorthanded (413 -- the next team has 170), best penalty kill (yet most power play goals against), and most shorthanded goals for (next team had 6 -- that's 80 less!).

Now hopefully we can be undefeated in the post season as well. Then it's on to the NHL.

Pennies

Pennies cost more than 1¢ each to produce since zinc prices have been rising. There are several groups out there trying to do away with the penny.

When the penny was introduced in 1793, it was worth what is now 22¢. From 1793-1857, there was also a half-cent piece. It was worth what is now 10¢ when it was discontinued. (Equivalency to today's money calculated on this site.)

So basically back in the late 1700s, the smallest coin you had was essentially a dime. Frankly I wouldn't mind not having pennies anymore, or at least seeing them much less. But then what would I throw at people when they snore through movies? Nickels would indeed hurt more.

From a retail standpoint, perhaps discontinuing the penny will also boost the usage of dollar coins, since most cash registers in the US are already designed for 4 types of coins. Then we can bring back to $2 bill with the space once populated by $1 bills! Then it will finally be the future!

...Oh yeah and nickels also cost more than their face value to make. Just thought I'd throw that in there.

The Maine Penny

The Maine Penny is a Norwegian Silver Penny dating from between 1065-1080 CE. It was found in 1957 in the remains of an old Indian settlement at Naskeag Point, Brooklin, Maine. As it was the only Norse artifact found at the site, it is unlikely Vikings brought it there themselves. More likely, it was worn as a pendant (some accounts state there was a perforation in the penny) or it was traded from a Viking settlement in Newfoundland and eventually made its way south. An Eskimo tool was also found at the site and could have also arrived via trade.

The Kensington Runestone

The Kensington Runestone is a slab of sandstone with a runic inscription on it. It was found in 1898. The inscription:

8 Geats and 22 Norwegians on [??] acquisition expedition from Vinland far west. We had traps by 2 shelters one day's travel to the north from this stone. We were fishing one day. After we came home, found 10 men red with blood and dead. AVM [Ave Maria] Deliver from evils.

[I] have 10 men at the inland sea to look after our ship 14 days travel from this wealth/property. Year [of our Lord] 1362

The Geats were from what is now southern Sweden. They found some dead dudes and were totally spooked. Oh yeah and Vinland is the Norse name for North America. And the runestone says it was written in 1362. Oh yeah and the runestone was found in Kensington, Minnesota!!

So basically, Vikings made it to Minnesota before Columbus was even born!!

Unfortunately, it's possible it's a hoax. The only witnesses to the unearthing were the family of Olof Öhman when he found it on his land, tangled in the roots of a tree. However, later witnesses say the roots did appear flattened, as if a 200 lb stone had been lying on them.

Linguists both in America and Scandinavia have declared it to be a fraud. Reasons included creation of a "J" rune, the language being a more modern form of Swedish, the lack of cases (accusative, dative, genitive, nominative, present in Old Norse and modern German), the use of umlauts, and the use of numerals.

However, Richard Nielsen, an amateur linguist, has refuted all of the above citing other 14th century examples.

Further, there was no evidence Öhman ever tried to make money from the stone. Tales of his admission of forgery were started by a jealous peer.

In 2000, a physical analysis of the stone was done. Scott Wolter, a geologist, and Barry Hanson, a chemist, presented "indisputable evidence" that the runes were authentic. They showed that the in-ground weathering process took a minimum of about 200 years. Therefore the carvings were made significantly before 1898. It is unclear how long the carvings were exposed to the air before going underground for 200 years. My guess would be about 350 years.

To come: other runestones in the US.

Triton

Triton is possibly the most awesome moon evar!

It's the largest of Neptune's 13 moons. Only it doesn't fuck around. It has a retrograde orbit!

"Retrograde orbit" means the moon moves in the opposite direction of the planet's rotation.

There are extreme seasonal changes every Neptunian year because its two poles take turns pointing directly at the sun.

Oh, did I mention its orbit is degrading? That means it will fucking crash into Neptune!! Or break apart and become rings around the planet.

Yeah, so that's about it...

...EXCEPT FOR THE CRYOVOLCANOES!!!! Cryovolcanoes are basically volcanoes that spew ice. There is a translucent layer of frozen nitrogen, which creates a "solid greenhouse" effect, which warms layers below. The liquids below the frozen nitrogen erupt and freeze when they exit the cryovolcano!


Awesome!

Bad Penalties

Last night the (still undefeated) Puck Hogs played the Wings. We tied, making us 8-0-1 for the season.

This was the chippiest team we've ever played. The refs called the game relatively fairly until the end of the game. In the second period, Ryan and I had a two on one, racing towards their goal when one of their defensemen hooked me and took me out. He was called for roughing*. Good call.
*The guy who roughed me was checked in open ice later in the period. It's a non-checking league. Our man got 2 for roughing of course. In the third the same guy from our team got in a fight that wasn't entirely his fault and was ejected. In one game he managed to get the most penalty minutes of anyone on the team.

In the third period, though, the puck went against the boards and I went after it, pushing one of their guys into the boards, which is perfectly legal. no one had control of the puck, so I kept the guy tied up when one of their guys dropped his stick, BEAR HUGGED ME from behind, and fell backwards, causing me to land on top of him. That is all kinds of illegal. The refs decided we both deserved penalties. I didn't even realize I was being called too. The other guy was on his way to the box because he knows he's a fucking failure, but when the ref came over to me and said "let's go" I couldn't believe it. As I was skating to the box, I asked the ref what the penalty was. He said "roughing I think." What the hell!

Of my 6 penalty minutes this season (though the website says I have 4 PIMS) I only deserve two of them. First, my other penalty that I didn't deserve: I took the puck into their zone (I forget which team) when one of their guys took me down. He didn't get called. As I was getting up I realized my stick was stuck. I looked down and the guy had let go of his stick and had both hands on my stick. I yanked on it and said something like "let of of my fucking stick motherfucker." He had the deer-in-headlights look in his eyes. The ref called me for cross-checking. Does he even know what cross-checking is??

The one penalty I deserved happened a couple weeks ago. I was against the boards when one of their guys tripped me. Again, no call. As I'm trying to get up, one of their guys grabs my helmet and pushed my head into the boards. Still no call. As the guy stepped over me I grabbed one of his skates and yanked. He went face first into the ice. Two minutes for tripping on me. Excellent call, but where were the other calls??

The HNA refs need to call the games both ways. It gets very frustrating how many liberties they let the other team take with us. I assume it has something to do with us being undefeated, but who knows?

Rio Rancho, NM

This is nowhere near as interesting as California City, CA, but there's sort of the same thing going on in Rio Rancho, New Mexico.

Basically they built all the roads but the population didn't increase as expected.

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Montréal Canadiens 100 Year Anniversary

The Montréal Canadiens are playing their official Centennial Game tonight against the Boston Bruins.

I'd summarize their history for you, but Puck Daddy does a fantastic job in Our begrudging tribute to 100 years of Canadiens hockey.

California City, CA

I was inspired by this blog about California City.

There's a city in the Mojave Desert called California City, CA, incorporated in 1965. Real estate developer Nat Mendelsohn purchased 320 square kilometers* in 1958, envisioning a city that would one day rival Los Angeles. He was wrong, of course.
*The city now has a total area of 527 square km.

The city is the third largest city in CA by land area, but only has 8,000 people in it. For comparison, Rockville, MD has 60,000 people in it.

The downtown area sits around a central park with an artificial lake and looks relatively normal:

Warning: many embedded Google Maps lie beyond!