Department of the clueless. Head of SF Housing Authority asks, what’s crystal meth?

Come again? Wait a minute. Let’s get this straight. The Executive Director of the SFHA, the agency responsible for putting roofs over the heads of the San Francisco’s poors and downtroddens, has never heard of a drug that has been the scourge of the city for over a decade?

Incredible but true.

[...]

Male pee is better than female pee as a compost activator

It’s less acidic. Really.

A National Trust park in the UK now has a pee bale for men to relieve themselves on (although not during visiting hours) to aid in the all-important composty activation.

The Electrification Coalition wants an electrified transportation system

Their members consist of major corporations across multiple industries and venture capital too.

Shoot the fat guys, hang the smokers

This excerpt is from email to Joe Bageant (who is probably a small “s” socialist) about WTF is up with lefties having a religious crusade against smokers and overweight people, using that as metaphor for the unfortunate tendency of lefties to preach to the underclass and working class about what is best for them.

I [...]

Has Black Sun Gazette outdone Jim Kunstler in Dark Apocalypse forebodings?

Did someone order an apocalypse?

Black Sun Gazette.

As Ragnarok Approaches (that’s the final destruction of the world)

Capitalism is dying. Industrialization is dying. The suburbs of today will become the slums of tomorrow. There will be an energy apartheid. People will form tribal communities out of necessity and life will go on, but [...]

Countdown to the Final Countdown

The Space Shuttle Atlantis rumbled safely off in to space this afternoon and some other interesting interesting stuff is now out there, as well:

Amelia Earhart’s Scarf to Fly Again

A scarf belonging to famed aviatrix Amelia Earhart will circle the Earth repeatedly as part of the personal cargo being carried into space by [...]

How bad are things in California?

“I looked as hard as I could at how states could declare bankruptcy,” said Michael Genest, director of the California Department of Finance who is stepping down at the end of the year. “I literally looked at the federal constitution to see if there was a way for states to return to territory status.”

States [...]

TARP Watchdog: AIG bailout transferred billions from government to counterparties

In a report (pdf) titled “Factors Affecting Efforts to Limit Payments to AIG Counterparties”, Neil Barofsky, special inspector for TARP, wrote that the “negotiating strategy to pursue concessions from [AIG] counterparties offered little opportunity for success, even in the light of the willingness of one of the counterparty to agree to concessions”.

He also concluded [...]

Copenhagen will be non-event. Screw the planet

What the governments of the world are negotiating is simply the continuation of the industrial machine in the face of global environmental change, but almost no public opposition.

Oh, there’s lots of blather about how We Need To Do Something… sometime, but not now.. Down the road a bit, the esteemed leaders of the [...]

Earliest sunset is Dec. 10. shortest day is Dec. 21

From Dec. 11 to Dec. 21, the days get shorter but sunset is later. Thus, the shortest day does not coincide with the earliest sunset.

No one believes this when first told (I didn’t either.) Here’s the chart for Los Angeles as an example.