Sign of changing times?
Bob Morris @ Apr 6th 2007 16:05 - Category: Unfiled ;
Cheney sticks to his delusions
From the Washington Post, no less, who used to be one of the biggest cheerleaders for the Iraq invasion.
Archive for April 6th, 2007
Southwest to have ‘century of drought’
Bob Morris @ Apr 6th 2007 09:41 - Category: Climate change ;
That’s what the IPCC says in their report released today. The US Southwest will become much drier and hotter.
Hey, maybe it’s time for cities like L.A., Phoenix, Las Vegas, and Palm Springs, just to name a few, to stop building new golf courses, which are notorious water pigs and only benefit a few. What clearer symbol could there be for the callous disregard of water resources than building golf courses in semi-arid areas and deserts? In ten years, when water shortages become routine in the southwest, those who did so will be looked upon as the near-criminal exploiters that they are.
How real estate fraud works
Bob Morris @ Apr 6th 2007 08:10 - Category: Unfiled ;
One scenario. Agent finds a straw buyer and an appraiser willing to inflate the price of the home. It gets financed 100%, no money down. Agent, appraiser, and buyer get a kickback. Buyer will end up with trashed credit, but may have gotten 100k and a house to live in for 6-8 months before the foreclosure because, of course, he never makes a payment. Some spiraling into drug addiction who still has good credit would make an ideal straw buyer, it would seem.
Bubble Tracking has been discussing this, detailing some suspicious looking deals. And they’re naming names too.
Zero waste, not recycling
Bob Morris @ Apr 6th 2007 00:15 - Category: Unfiled ;
Recycling is consumer-oriented and aims to take junk and try to do something with it. Zero Waste says, design it better from the start so that there is nothing left to recycle. Among the big problems with recycling is that everything is so badly packaged and labeled that recycling becomes difficult at best.
From The Death of Recycling by Paul Palmer
Why have the designers been able to design waste so cavalierly into their products? A large part of the answer is the ready availability of a subsidized dump. As we get further into a zero waste society, dumps will not only become unnecessary but as soon as any zero waste solution can be applied, the dump can be legally put off limits. When there is no eternally welcoming dump for a product, there will be no alternative to designing for perpetual reuse.
In recycling, a glass bottle is shipped to a plant to be melted down and turned into more glass. In Zero Waste, the bottle is simple refilled. It’s a whole different paradigm, one that is needed now.
Tip: Green Lefts
Center for Responsible Lending
Bob Morris @ Apr 6th 2007 00:08 - Category: Unfiled ;
