Camera Obscura: The Age of Superhero Decadence

I had the chance to read through some of the posts at the much-hyped Big Hollywood web site, the creation of conservative writer/web mogul Andrew Breitbart (the man who helped launch both The Drudge Report and Huffington Post).

Conservatives like Breitbart have a history of decrying art and entertainment for not having a solid core of American conservative political belief and therefore are instead guilty of destroying the moral fiber of the nation. Yawn.

At least he's not calling for a return of congressional hearings into comic books (like that led by Tennessee Democrat Senator Estes Kefauver) and the movie industry -- not yet anyway, but I get the feeling some would love such a thing. Those events were dismal, dark days in our history, allowing for hysterical Inquisition-style theatrics which destroyed lives and celebrated ignorance.

I suppose this is a continuation of the so-called culture wars in America, as if the body politic needs to alter the creation and distribution of works of art and the imagination so that it conforms to a single perspective. Yeah, we so need an anti-imagination campaign. Because, well, conservative ideas are all mangled by art and media whose only goal is to express America-hating and commie-loving views. (Conservative political Myth Numero Uno.)

I stumbled into Big Hollywood after reading about a column by comic book writer Bill Willingham published there. Willingham is moaning that we are in the age of "superhero decadence" and longs for a return to the days when all comic book superheroes were ... well, just better:

"Old fashioned ideals of courage and patriotism, backed by a deep virtue and unshakable code, seem to be… well, old fashioned."

Willingham adds:

"It’s time to make public a decision I’ve already made in private. I’m going to shamelessly steal a line from Rush Limbaugh, who said, concerning a different matter, “Go ahead and have your recession if you insist, but you’ll have to pardon me if I choose not to participate.” And from now on that’s my position on superhero comics. Go ahead and have your Age of Superhero Decadence, if you insist, but you’ll have to pardon me if I no longer choose to participate.

No more superhero decadence for me. Period. From now on, when I write within the superhero genre I intend to do it right. And if I am ever again privileged to be allowed to write Superman, you can bet your sweet bootie that he’ll find the opportunity to bring back “and the American way,” to his famous credo."

Yeah. Wonder why Willingham's work isn't more successful since he guides his comic book writing by the light of Limbaugh's political views? Darn kids today just don't have much use for jingoistic tropes of nationalism in their durned heathen funny books.

Robot 6 has a good discussion of Willingham and his views on comic books.

But really, as a lifelong comic book fan, the superheroes usually were the least impressive creations. Basic storylines tend to follow a simple formula: Good Guy Encounters Bad Guy and Big Fight Follows. There are many, many instances in real life of just plain heroic - not superheroic - acts and individuals. Most recently, the pilot Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger III of the airliner which was forced to land in the middle of the Hudson River yesterday is a bona fide hero - maybe the only person in the world who could have landed that plane in a river without any fatalities.

And if Willingham feels he needs to inject conservative politics into his superhero fantasies, well that's fine by me. I wish him the best. But drama - good drama - requires some kind of conflict, and a character with flaws is more interesting than those without. Let's face it - a multi-millionaire Bruce Wayne, aka Batman, who decides to wear a mask and attack criminals is really just a vigilante who is making an end-run around the law and courts in order to exact immediate justice which only he defines.

I enjoy the movie "Dirty Harry" but in real life I do not want a policeman to act like Harry at all.

Reading through Big Hollywood all I found was a giant whine-festival - Hollywood is evil, media is evil, good moral values don't exist in art enough to satisfy me, etc etc etc.



I like some ambiguity in the fiction or movies or TV I see -- not everyone does, and with hundreds if not thousands of options available to us, we can all find something we like. And that ambiguity allows me a chance to ponder on the tale I am reading or watching - to react to it and weigh it and think about it. A work of the imagination is most often about the rejection of confinement.

Discussion and debate about the fictions of heroes and superheroes might best be started with Joseph Campbell's "Hero With A Thousand Faces" rather than the blather of conservative blogs. Your mileage may vary.

Offering Holy Oils for Obama

Some religious leaders got a congressman to allow them to anoint a doorway that President-elect Obama will step through on his way to the platform where he will be sworn in next week.

This "inaugural anointing" is the first time such has occurred in the U.S., though the same folks did anoint the seats and doors in a Senate chamber where confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominees Roberts and Alito were held.

Video is here, as the Reverends Rob Schenck and Patrick J. Mahoney are joined by Congressman Paul Broun of Georgia in their ceremony. (Who knew there was already an Anointing Shoppe online?)

Broun told the press in November he thinks Obama is going to establish a new national Gestapo security force to help transform the U.S. into a Marxist state. The Rev. Schenck, a founding member of Operation Rescue, has had some run-ins with the law dating back to the 1990s:

"Schenck was arrested a dozen times during protests outside women's health clinics and abortion doctors' homes, and was momentarily detained by Secret Service after shoving an aborted fetus in front of Bill Clinton outside the 1992 Democratic National Convention."

Broun has introduced one piece of legislation since being elected - banning images of naked women in magazines from the military - a bill which has never been approved for a vote.

Prayers aplenty are common at the Inauguration - I suppose any help is a good thing. I mean, if someone wants to pray and fast for three weeks to benefit me or you, well, I guess that's their choice.

But what if a congressmen brought in some folks to hold a Smudging Ceremony?

Maybe the Tennessee legislature, writhing and moaning over who will be or won't be holding the position of Speaker of the House need some of that holy oil, or a smudging or even an exorcism. Just something to clean out their chi or chakras, maybe they should all attend a cuddle party??

Republicans Make Tennessee History and Hate It

The Republicans in the state's House of Representatives made history today and they are furious.

For the first time, all the Democrat members of the House of a Republican to be the Speaker of the House -- it just wasn't the Republican the GOP leaders had planned on and bragged about for the last few months. Republican Kent Williams of Carter County got the powerful post which the entire GOP (other than Williams) had planned for Jason Mumpower to get.

Also seems for the first time that Highway Patrol officers had to be summoned to surround and protect the newly elected speaker from his angry GOP colleagues.

Did Williams seek out the job? Or did Democrats seek out Williams?

Other than bloggers, pundits and the news media - few Tennesseans know or care one bit about the battle for control of the House chairman.

Longtime speaker, Democrat Jimmy Naifeh, just showed the entire GOP he knows more than they do about how to exert control over all events in the House, even appointing his replacement. I also find it most curious that the Republican leaders were totally unable to muster the support of a single Democrat to vote for their agenda. And Democrats rallied around one Republican to shatter the dreams of Mumpower and the entire state GOP.

NOTE: You can track the hijinks, the anger and the aftermath through a vast amount of posts from Post Politics. Also, readers respond at KnoxViews too.

Problems Grow for TVA's Ash Spill

Keeping up with the ongoing developments --

Gov. Bredesen says TVA must pay back the state for it's ongoing costs in clean-up and testing for the massive spill of toxic ash in Roane County - just as TVA is saying they are already laying out $1 million in their own costs for the clean-up.

"I am committed to making sure this spill is cleaned up and doing everything we can to prevent any similar situation in the future," Gov. Phil Bredesen said in a statement. "I'm also committed to making sure Tennessee taxpayers don't foot the bill. This order requires TVA to reimburse the Department of Environment and Conservation for expenses incurred overseeing cleanup and further investigative activities."

WATE-TV is broadcasting an hour-long special tonight on the disaster and offers a chance for you to submit questions and hear some answers from TVA and other agencies. They also report seeing clean-up crews 6 miles away from the original site.

Sen. Boxer says new regulations are long overdue when it comes to controls for the ash ponds at coal plants and that reviews at all sites must take place now:

"Boxer said her resolution also will request that the EPA immediately regulate coal ash once the agency has completed that review.

"This is the most neglected area," Boxer said. "I myself apologized for not getting on this sooner, so I'm going to be all over this."

Sen. Corker says TVA ratepayers will bear all the costs of cleanups, with no federal aid, even though TVA is a federally owned utility.

"I hate it for the ratepayers of TVA, but this is their responsibility."

More info on the real-time problems and questions from one resident who is "trapped in a nightmare". "Sick and getting sicker," she writes.

The lawsuits continue.

Another video on the impact (via Southern Beale):

Get Paid To Blog About Your Island Lifestyle

Sign. Me. Up.

Applications are now being taken for a 6-month job as a caretaker on Hamilton Island - your duties will be to write about your experiences living in a three-bedroom villa, exploring the island and maybe cleaning the pool every now and then. Post your adventure in a weekly blog plus some video and photo blogging as you live in a tourist paradise.

Nope, it is not a joke.

UPDATE: A winner for this contest has been announced - see this post for details.

The New Uncle Sam Abroad, or Joe The Plumber's Self-Reflexive Truth-Search

Samuel Joseph "Call Me Joe" Wurzelbacher, hired to make video reports from Israel about the war with Hamas for Pajamas Media spends much of his time talking about himself and denigrating reporters on his "search for the truth" about the war.

No info on what the causes of this war are - heck he couldn't even name the people whose bombed out house he inspected. He did say the threat of missile attacks from the Hamas makes him angry.

But it's been his comments to the press about the press that has been generating coverage too:

"I don't think journalists should be anywhere allowed war. I mean, you guys report where our troops are at. You report what's happening day to day. You make a big deal out of it. I think it's asinine. You know, I liked back in World War I and World War II when you'd go to the theater and you'd see your troops on, you know, the screen and everyone would be real excited and happy for 'em. Now everyone's got an opinion and wants to downer, ah, down soldiers. You know, American soldiers or Israeli soldiers.

I think media should be abolished from, uh, you know, reporting. You know, war is hell. And if you're gonna sit there and say, "Well look at this atrocity," well you don't know the whole story behind it half the time, so I think the media should have no business in it."

So, war coverage is bad - and that's why he is working as a war reporter?

His 10 days of work for PJTV is sure to help sell his new book, which is likely why his publicity agent told him to go after the PJTV exposure. Score this one Publicity 1, Truth 0.

TVA Has More Spills, Sen. Boxer Demands Review

Another TVA spill from their coal-fired Widow's Creek plant in Alabama -- that makes for three "accidents" in less than a month. TVA officials called the Alabama incident a "leak" which poured out 10,000 gallons from a gypsum waste pond - some going into the Tennessee River. This is the same plant that TVA's Inspector General cited in a report from last year for failure to address the constant problem of leakage -

"The report says little consideration was given by TVA officials of reporting the "continuous nature and extent of the leaks" to Alabama environmental authorities."

Sen. Barbara Boxer of California told the press that the agency needs a full review and needs it now:

"The Tennessee Valley Authority has a lot to answer for - the first step is to prevent further spills and damage to communities around its plants. I have asked the TVA for a complete assessment of the safety of its waste disposal sites and their plans for upgrading those sites. This second pollution spill must be a wake up message to the TVA and to the U.S. EPA that the current situation is unacceptable."

In a KNS story on this incident, TVA officials say they did conduct a review of all of their waste ponds and found they were "all in good shape."

Also the state has cited TVA for failing to comply with regulations when they allowed for the release of sludge into the Ocoee River this week, a story which KnoxViews has been tracking.

Sen. Boxer's committee heard testimony this week on TVA's handling of their first accident back on Dec. 22nd (links to the hearing and testimony here). But as noted at Facing South, TVA's CEO just did not have much info on what the status of their waste ponds might be, or even how many there are:

"Asked how many ash ponds TVA had in use, for example, Kilgore said he didn't know. He also didn't know why the company opted for dry storage at some facilities and wet at others, or that TVA had previously fought federal environmental enforcement efforts. And he said he was unaware that a 2007 federal assessment documented three TVA sites with proven damage from coal ash pollution.

Kilgore also demonstrated what appeared to be a basic misunderstanding of critical coal waste handling issues. Asked whether he would be willing to utilize the same strict waste-management practices for his ash impoundments that govern landfills for ordinary household trash, he responded that his company was investing hundreds of millions of dollars in new air scrubbers for the Kingston plant.

"That's wonderful, and we all applaud that, but that gives us even more ash," said an exasperated Boxer. "I'm asking about safe disposal of ash."

Kilgore replied noncommittally that TVA would "look at several options."


While Governor Bredesen has called for far more state regulatory controls over TVA, it seems their current system is in dire need of immediate attention right now. When will the rest of Tennessee's state and federal representatives call for action? How many "accidents" will it take? Why hasn't TVA's own board called for intense reviews of their federally-owned utility?

Camera Obscura: Best of '08 Awards Roll Out; Ray Dennis Steckler, R.I.P.; The Empire Wants You

The Golden Globes will air Sunday, the People's Choice Awards loved "Dark Knight" and two Hollywood guilds provide a peek at what movies are likely Oscar contenders for Best Picture nominee.

The Writer's Guild announced nominations for Best Original script: Burn After Reading (Joel Coen and Ethan Coen), Milk (Dustin Lance Black), Vicky Cristina Barcelona (Woody Allen), The Visitor (Tom McCarthy), and The Wrestler (Robert Siegel). The Coens won WGA awards for Fargo and No Country for Old Men, and Allen has won four times, most recently for 1990's Crimes & Misdemeanors. For Best Adapatation, the nominees are: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (Eric Roth), The Dark Knight (Jonathan Nolan and Christopher Nolan), Doubt (John Patrick Shanley), Frost/Nixon (Peter Morgan), and Slumdog Millionaire (Simon Beaufoy). Roth previously won this award for Forrest Gump, and Shanley won for Moonstruck. If you're wondering, The Dark Knight counts as "adapted" because it uses pre-existing characters.

The Director's Guild meanwhile usually tags most of the nominees and their selections are:Danny Boyle, Slumdog Millionaire. This is his first DGA nomination. Christopher Nolan, The Dark Knight. Nolan was previously nominated for Memento. Gus Van Sant, Milk. Van Sant got a nod for Good Will Hunting, too. David Fincher, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. Ron Howard, Frost/Nixon. Howard won DGA Awards for A Beautiful Mind and Apollo 13.

For info on the Golden Globes, their website has all the details. All the award shows are thankful there is no writer's strike this year. Will viewers care at all?

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One of my picks for the best of 2008 is also my pick for the best horror film of 2008 - "Let The Right One In". It's the very subtle and powerful story of vampires and children from Sweden and a most original take on the vampire genre. A young boy named Oskar, lonely and isolated in a Stockholm apartment building, makes friends one evening with a new tenant, a strange and barefoot girl named Eli. She connects with him one evening as he is stomping about the courtyard as he pretends he is fighting and threatening the bullies who terrorize him by day at school. Is it his violence that attracts her attention?

There's very few special effects here, no coffins, no checklist of vampire cliches. Just a steady and understated march towards a confrontation with the adult world and the world of vampires. The acting too is subtle and powerful and both children act far wiser than their years. The movie is haunting both for the way it shows how children are unimportant and isolated and for the quiet threat of a vampire trolling the locals. It also has a real sweetness as these two lost souls create a friendship.

It's an amazing movie, already earning many awards and rave reviews, and is simply top notch work in any language. Any Hollywood remake would never, repeat, never, provide the intelligence and the sly approach of horror to be found here.

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The AMC Channel is prepping a mini-series remake of the British sci-fi classic "The Prisoner", which will air later this year.

In the meantime, AMC is offering all 17 episodes of the original show online - uncut, no commercials, and loads of great fun. Check them out.

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Legendary low-budget director/actor/writer Ray Dennis Steckler passed away this week. Acting under the name of Cash Flagg, he made history with his 1964 movie "The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies". He was fearlessly independent, shooting on location, often without any sound equipment and looping the dialog later, playing both the crazed and haunted killer or the comic sidekick in his movies. He was a shameless promoter and his movies show influences from Fellini, John Ford, Hitchcock and even Ed Wood. The dream sequence from "Incredibly Strange Creatures" shows off his daring and his ultra-low-end production designs. And that's Ray having the dream and scooting about in his hoodie.



I doubt there was any job in a movie or tv show the man did not do on his own. Not that he did them well.

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From the web site io9 a post about designer/artist Feng Zhu, who has created a line of "recruitment posters" for the Empire, as in "Star Wars". More samples are at their websites.

Darth Vader and General Grievous never looked anything like this.

And I won't mention that the Empire's army was made of clones, so why the heck would they need to recruit anyone?

As with most things SW-related there's a disconnect of logic or reason. The Lucas Rule is "if it looks good, it's in the official canon".

Spider-Man Meets Obama

For the first time ever, a U.S. President has admitted he likes comic books and his fave is Spider-Man. So Marvel Comics is printing up a special edition to mark the historic moment. The issue hits stands on Jan. 14th and of course real collectors can seek out the variant cover.

I wonder - was Obama ever a member of F.O.O.M.?

Senate Takes On TVA Ash Spill

Ash spill really is not the phrase needed to describe the massive enviromental and economic disaster that struck Roane County on Dec. 22, but for now it will do. The Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works chaired by Sen. Barbara Boxer, held a hearing today on the disaster and took testimony from TVA CEO Tom Kilgore, the county EMA Director Howie Rose and Dr. Stephen Smith with the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy.

The committee website has video of the entire hearing at this link. (RealPlayer needed)

Sen. Boxer said in an opening statement:

"Over 130 million tons of coal combustion waste is produced in the U.S. every year. This is the equivalent of a train of boxcars stretching from Washington, D.C. to Melbourne, Australia.

A 2007 US EPA report found 67 ash impoundments or landfills in 23 states that had caused or were suspected of causing contamination, including to ground or surface waters. EPA knew of dozens of other sites but lacked sufficient information to single out the cause.

For nearly three decades, EPA has been looking at the issue of how to regulate combustion waste. The federal government has the power to regulate these wastes, and inaction has allowed this enormous volume of toxic material to go largely unregulated. State efforts are very inconsistent, and as more and more toxic material is removed from coal combustion, it is critically important that protective standards for coal ash waste be established."

The testimony of Dr. Smith offers some of the best advice on what happened and how to prevent such disasters in the future -- I hope both the federal and the state government decide to enact strict regulations for these highly toxic collection sites. He noted:

"News reports and my organization’s preliminary investigation indicate that this could and should have been avoided. Shortcuts have been taken, rules were waved or broken and accountability has been absent; this was not a natural disaster this was a manmade disaster.

It is clear that, in its early response, TVA prioritized public relations over public health and has largely been overwhelmed by the size of this spill, which appears to be the largest industrial spill in our nation’s history.

The force of this accident not only ripped homes off their foundations—it also ripped the lid off of a national problem and the failure of EPA to develop minimum standards for this waste. It is outrageous that the landfills holding our household garbage are more regulated than the pits holding this toxic coal sludge.

Today I call on your committee to at a minimum:
1: Require an orderly phase out all wet storage of toxic coal ash;
2: Require EPA to immediately inspect and monitor all toxic coal ash storage and disposal units; and
3: Develop the long-promised Federal regulation of all toxic coal ash storage and disposal by year’s end.

TVA was born out of crippling economic times. As we find ourselves again in similar difficult times, this is an opportunity to remake TVA for the 21st Century.

Online folks also reported on the hearing -- Southern Beale - Part1 and Part 2, Aunt B. and Nashville Is Talking has a roundup. Local news station WATE takes on the story as well. The Knoxville News Sentinel's coverage is collected here.

Also, as Sen. Boxer has said, just covering the toxic ash spilled onto the riverbanks and yards for several hundred acres with grass seed is not a cleanup solution for the long-term. Much work is ahead and TVA has every reason to develop better methods when it comes to burning coal - demand better regulation for their protection and the safety of Tennessee residents, and to show they have a viable role in the energy business for this century.

Sen. Boxer also says more hearings on this issue are being planned.

(Background posts on this event are all tagged TVA spill if you want more information.)

UPDATE: R. Neal at KnoxViews has been reporting on another release of sludge, this time on the Ocoee River - here and here. And more lawsuits ahead on the disaster in Roane County.

Joe the Plumber aka Joe the War Reporter

It sounds like a punch line to a bad political joke -- "Joe The Plumber" has been hired to be a war reporter. In Israel.

Yet that's what a web-site called PajamasTV, headed by Knoxville's UT law professor Glenn Reynolds, just did. Hired him. Gonna pay him to be a war correspondent.

If need for reporters exists, why not hire any of the thousands of experienced writers and reporters who've lost their jobs in the last year? I guess PJTV and Reynolds think the entire barrel is rotten - or maybe JtP was the only person who would take the job. Is it because the job is only for 10 days?

Who knew the jokes of the 2008 election would just keep on giving in 2009 too?

The commenters at MetaFilter score points on the topic:

"Don't get me wrong-- I think that pajamas media is pretty much only proving how shallow the right-wing online journalism talent pool is, but I actually can't blame JtP for making the most out of his 15 minutes of fame. Opportunities are tough to come by, especially for a guy like Joe, and ridiculous as his various schemes appear (ads for the DTV switchover, his newsletter, his album, etc.), I can totally understand wanting to make as best a living as he can by grabbing the opportunities that come by in front of him. I really don't view the term "opportunist" as an epithet. The guy sees opportunities and he takes them. Granted, if he'd been a bit better about that in the past, he'd be a master plumber, rather than an apprentice, and PJMedia should think more about who will produce good-quality content for them, but you go with the right-wing journalists you have, not the ones you wish you had."

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"I look forward to hearing their ideas for sending other pundits into combat zones."


Meanwhile, the commenters at Michelle Malkin's ultra-conservative site cheer their man on:


"I would believe him before 97% of the rest of the media."

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"He will probably be safer in Israel than here - at least after the Big O day, the 20th…"

It's only 10 days of work we're talking here, people. It's really just a way to drum up publicity for ... D'oh!!!!

5 and 6 Year Olds Try to Elope to Africa

It is a dream that has been shared by lovers across the centuries – the chance to elope to exotic lands. But few would have been as bold and spontaneous as six-year-old Mika and his five-year-old sweetheart Anna-Bell who, after mulling over their options in secret, packed their suitcases on New Year's Eve and set off from the German city of Hanover to tie the knot under the heat of the African sun.

The children left their homes at dawn while their unwitting parents were apparently sleeping, and took along Mika's seven-year-old sister, Anna-Lena, as a witness to the wedding.

Awww ... you can read their adventures here.

What Is The Value of News?

"It's like some French Foreign Legion outpost up there," says Colin McEnroe, a former capitol correspondent who who was recently fired from his job hosting a daily radio talk show and writes a weekly column for the Courant. "Everyone around you is dead and you've got six bullets left and 20 people running at you."


That's from an article at Governing.com detailing the decline of reporting and news coverage of state legislatures, the continuing poor health of the newspaper business and the search for a new business model for news.

What role will the news biz take in the next decade? What does the public need and use from reporting?

Reporters have been poorly paid historically, and bloggers do much with zero pay, so is all profitability from reporting and publishing about to disappear? Will we see a rise in regional newspapers or perhaps more locally published weekly papers?

The argumentative he said/she said blather unrolling across cable news networks plays like verbal wrestling matches and may draw ratings, but does it actually supply information or simply entertainment?

Maybe newspapers should adopt the old stringer method and start paying, even small amounts, to those who attend, blog and report events at the local and state level.

Michael Hirschorhn writes on the potential demise of the NYTimes and the possible future of news reporting for the Atlantic and says:

"As David Remnick, the editor of The New Yorker, pointed out at a recent media breakfast, the blogging and local reporting from Mumbai in the early hours of the November terrorist attacks were nothing short of remarkable. Ditto in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. I recall avidly following the 2006 crisis in Lebanon through a variety of sources, none less interesting or credible because it was, say, Haaretz instead of The Times. Like neighboring hospitals coordinating their purchases of expensive MRI equipment, journalistic outlets will discover that the Web allows (okay, forces) them to concentrate on developing expertise in a narrower set of issues and interests, while helping journalists from other places and publications find new audiences.

In this scenario, nytimes.com would begin to resemble a bigger, better, and less partisan version of the Huffington Post, which, until someone smarter or more deep-pocketed comes along, is the prototype for the future of journalism: a healthy dose of aggregation, a wide range of contributors, and a growing offering of original reporting. This combination has allowed the HuffPo to digest the news that matters most to its readers at minimal cost, while it focuses resources in the highest-impact areas."

Jack Lail has been writing about the challenges both economic and cultural facing the media today and continues to be optimistic:

"Instead of viewing the blogger-MSM relationship as only symbiotic, which it certainly can be, I like to think about the media gatekeeper as having an open gate, drawing in more views and voices from both small and large, from competitor and contributor and from the uncomfortable as well as the comfortable.

Instead of heavy filtering to fit a physical newshole or time slot, mainstream media has an expanded ability to cultivate community dialogue."

I do think it most hopeful that the print media is looking for a solution and not just cashing out and going home.

I'm also eyeing this project from Newscoma and Sadcox, called NewsTechZilla. They work to provide information and report on how to make the online world work best for news coverage. Given the excellent skills of it's creators and contributors, I think they've got a great site rolling. I'm adding them to the blogroll on the right side of this page.

The "Blog" of the Month

A blog I love.

The "Blog" of "Unnecessary" Quotation Marks

Sexting

Yet another reason I'm forced to admit it is better to be old than young. Also, another reason parents have to be just as tech-savvy as their children.

"Sexting".

The term refers to sending flirtatious and sexual content via mobile devices and/or computers. It's a long way from that hand-written note with the words "Do you like me? Circle Yes or No" which might have shuffled through a few hands to find the intended recipient. Today's kids just create 'sxy txts".

The Tennessean reported Sunday on the trend among teens (aged 13-19) and young adults (aged 20-26), with most saying they do send such messages and about 1 in 5 teens saying they had sent nude or topless photos of themselves to someone, and one-third of young adults. The full survey is here, with these results:

How do teens and young adults feel about sending/posting sexually suggestive content?
-- 75% of teens and 71% of young adults say sending sexually suggestive content “can have serious negative consequences.”

-- Yet, 39% of teens and 59% of young adults have sent or posted sexually suggestive emails or text messages— and 20% of teens and 33% of young adults have sent/posted nude or semi-nude images of themselves.

Text messages, instant messages and emails with sexual content gets sent quite frequently, according to the survey:

How many teens are sending or posting sexually suggestive messages?
-- 39% of all teens
-- 37% of teen girls
-- 40% of teen boys
-- 48% of teens say they have received such messages

How many young adults are sending or posting sexually suggestive messages?
-- 59% of all young adults
-- 56% of young adult women
-- 62% of young adult men
-- 64% of young adults say they have received such messages

Yeah, I would hate to have to provide photographic proof of my hotness or devotion, whether I was a teen, or a twenty-something or whatever. Odd, too that the majority of those who do send hot flashes to their peers also think the risk of something bad following on the heels of such "sexting" is quite likely. They do it anyway.

And my parents were worried I might drink or go dancing.

Since tech devices are pretty much permanently attached to the hands of someone under the aged of 25, I suppose such heavy usage as a form of flirting and sexual contact was inevitable.

I thought just finding the right words to say to a woman was tough. I knew some guys who would scale a building or something to spray-paint their initials and vows of love and devotion. Today, you'd have to digitize it, write it in text slang, upload the right image files and hurl it into cyberspace.

Talking is under-rated.

Camera Obscura: R.I.P. Beverly Garland; Goodbye 2008

Beverly Garland died December 5th at age 82, and though her name may not be listed among Hollywood's greatest, for me she was and is. Her work spanned more than 50 years and she was a constant player on television from it's early days of popularity and into the 21st century.

Her career was a part of just about every series on television in the 1960s and 1970s. And she made some iconic characters - a fierce gun-blazing sheriff in "Gunslinger", the new wife and mom on the last few seasons of "My Three Sons", and her image is forever a part of sci-fi history in this poster for 1957 movie "Not of This Earth."

The framing of her in that poster - caught mid-scream - all wild eyes and terrified hands, makes an incredible impression. The poster is probably better than the movie, though it must be said her acting in this and other Roger Corman low-budget movies was always top-notch. And she had to go onscreen against some truly cheesy monsters, but always brought some class to such movies.

Her image is also a part of the poster for "It Conquered The World", but the poster above it the real masterpiece here.

I do not want to be all morbid and focus on the deaths of the famous in 2008, but truly some very influential performers moved on - George Carlin, Paul Newman, Charlton Heston, Bettie Page, Eartha Kitt, Sidney Pollack, Issac Hayes to name just a few.

Still those like Garland deserve a moment too -- such as Majel Barrett, the wife of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry. She had just completed the voice-over work as the main computer in the new Trek movie, and of course, she was the original computer voice in the original show. In fact, she was the only actress to be in every single incarnation of the TV series, even the short-lived cartoon version.

Also there was the passing of Sam Bottoms. His character Lance Johnson, famous surfer, in "Apocalypse Now" gave rise to the line "Charlie don't surf!!"

One of the creators for some of the most memorable monsters ever made for the movies, Stan Winston, also left us back in the summer of 2008. A make-up and special effects genius, his designs and work reach from "Friday the 13th" to "Alien" and "Predator", "Terminator" (all of them!) to "Batman", "Jurassic Park", "Iron Man" and on and on the list goes. And if he did not make the effects you see, then it is very likely one of his students made it.

Here's a huge video compilation of just some of his work. A brief history is here. And this link has a wide sample of his work as well. and a list of just 7 his most notable achievements.

Winston was a real wizard of Hollywood movie magic, and a pioneer of design. Many of his most recent creations will be revealed in 2009 in his work for movies like "G.I. Joe", Martin Scorsese's "Shutter Island," the new "Terminator" movie and many other titles. His work will be around for a long, long time.

More Bad News of Effects From TVA Toxic Spill

I hated reading the following entry this morning from the blogger at Life on Swan Pond after TVA ... who lives in the midst of the massive coal sludge disaster in Roane County. The following was posted on Thursday:

"My Grandson became sick yesterday... Cough.... stuffy nose.... sneezing..... flushed..... didn't want to eat..... not wanting to nap either....

It was windy yesterday just like the day before... and the ash had to be flying.

I took him to the ER as recommended by his physician. I took the information that TVA had given me, as well as a MSDS sheet about fly ash.

He had to endure a nasal wash & suction, x-rays, monitoring of his oxygen levels. The conclusion? Irritation from the fly ash, specifically airborne.

TVA is aware, and we are currently at a local hotel. The Doctor recommended that he not go home... we not go home....avoid the area altogether.

I didn't realize how I would feel once someone told me I couldn't go home. I didn't sink in until this morning. Due to the stress and the lack of sleep... I began to meltdown. "don't go home".... keeps rolling through my head.

No, we didn't lose our home to visible damage.... but we can't go home."

I also fear more such problems will be apparent in coming days and weeks and months as TVA tries to clean up after a billion-plus gallons of toxic coal sludge washed over the surrounding land and water covering hundreds of acres.

(NOTE: To readers searching for posts here on this event - I have tagged all the related posts with "TVA spill" and if you'll click on that tag, all posts will be collected for you to read.)

I see too today that my post yesterday cheering the bloggers and others outside the mainstream press for really providing a constant supply of information on this event and the aftermath is sparking some reaction. Michael Silence takes issue with my assertion, and I'll be the first to note that his blog at the Knoxville News Sentinel has been very active on this story. However, I stand by my post and would point you to this response by R. Neal at KnoxViews, who has cataloged the online activity and how the media followed on those reports on many issues of the disaster.

And more important -- every voice is needed to tell this story.

This disaster has devastating consequences for East Tennessee. And I don't write about it for any other reason than I fear the nasty business may just get pushed away as part of a revolving news cycle. This is a life-changing event for those who live nearby and those who use the rivers in East Tennessee. Plus it has vital connections to every decision made from here on in on the fundamental operations of the coal-burning industry in America. Critical improvements must be made -- or it will happen again. The time to take action is today, not next time.

Everything That Happened In 2008

The United States marked the five-year anniversary of the war in Iraq. Over four million Iraqis had fled the country or been internally displaced, and the total cost of the war, currently about $650 billion, was expected to rise to $2 trillion over the next five years. Oil rose above $147 a barrel, and Abu Dhabi bought New York City’s Chrysler Building for $800 million. Somali pirates stole a Saudi supertanker. President George W. Bush announced that North Korea was no longer a state sponsor of terrorism. The CIA expanded its covert operations in Iran. Bozo the Clown died, as did Jesse Helms, William F. Buckley Jr., Paul Newman, Heath Ledger, Indonesian dictator Suharto, comedian George Carlin, didgeridoo master Alan Dargin, and, at age 110, Louis de Cazenave of the Fifth Senegalese Rifles, one of the last two living French veterans of World War I. “War,” he once explained, “is something absurd, useless, that nothing can justify.” Ariel Sharon was still alive, and Israel bombed Gaza in retaliation for ongoing rocket attacks. Tom Jones insured his chest hair for $7 million.

Australian police tasered a ram. France banned TV shows for babies. Pope Benedict XVI toured the United States, and the Vatican released a list of seven “social” sins–including littering, genetic tampering, and creating poverty–to complement the seven cardinal vices. The World Health Organization announced that virtually untreatable drug-resistant tuberculosis could now be found in 45 countries. Japanese men began to wear bras. The cost of rice increased by 30 percent, and food riots broke out in 30 countries. The United Nations expected the number of starving people in the world to rise to 950 million. North Korean hunger scientists announced a new noodle. In an expanding thousand-square-mile low-oxygen zone growing along the coast of Oregon and Washington, every fish, crab, and sea worm was dead. A 7.9-magnitude earthquake centered in China’s Sichuan Province left tens of thousands of people dead and millions homeless. The Summer Olympics were held in Beijing, heralded on television by fake, computer-generated fireworks. Structures built for the 2004 Athens Olympics were falling into ruin. A man in Swansea, Wales, died from eating too much fairycake, and an elderly German woman filed a lawsuit against a hospital in Bavaria after she went in for a leg operation and was instead given a new anus. Paddington Bear turned 50; both the cubicle and the assassination of Martin Luther King turned 40; Viagra turned 10. One in 100 American adults was behind bars.

The Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that detainees held as “enemy combatants” by the United States at Guantanamo Bay have a constitutional right to challenge their detention through habeas corpus petitions in federal courts. Scientists located the part of the brain responsible for understanding sarcasm. Global stock markets lost $3.1 trillion in four days, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell below 10,000 for the first time in five years. The real estate boom in Dubai slowed. Nobel Laureate V. S. Naipaul declared that there are “no more great writers,” and Bob Dylan won a Pulitzer Prize. Illinois Senator Barack Obama was elected President of the United States. Gunmen terrorized Mumbai, and inflation in Zimbabwe reached 23 million percent. Iceland went bankrupt. Zookeepers across the United States put their animals on diets, feeding gorillas according to a Weight Watchers point system and offering polar bears sugar-free Jell-O. The thoughts of a monkey in North Carolina controlled the actions of a robot in Japan. New York researchers used carbon nanotubes to create the darkest material known to man. Two teams of physicists, one in Calgary and the other in Tokyo, successfully stored nothing within a gas in the form of a squeezed vacuum composed of uncertainty.

From Harper's Yearly Review

Governor Calls For More TVA Oversight; Senate To Hold Hearings

Without the commitment of many bloggers, environmental activists, and the efforts of residents directly affected by the enormous disaster from TVA's coal ash spill on December 22nd, then I doubt there would have been the type of response to the event seen on Dec. 31st. While it is true the national and local media did finally jump into the game several days after the event, it was the reporting done by online writers at the local and regional level which kept this giant disaster from slipping into the deep background.

The response from Tennessee's governor Phil Bredesen, 9 days after the huge wave of toxic coal sludge poured into the Tennessee Valley, is encouraging. He's calling for greater participation and independent oversight on how TVA works and how they handle toxic waste:

"You get a sense of how big, how terrifying, it must have been."

While the TVA handles the cleanup and workers from state environmental and health agencies monitor for signs of short-term or long-term danger, Bredesen called for a much more aggressive role for the state in future environmental monitoring.

The governor called for inspections of all of TVA's retention ponds and a thorough review of state environmental regulations, with an eye toward taking back some of the responsibilities it may have ceded to federal authorities. Right now, for example, TVA inspects its own facilities. That could change, he said.

"TVA is a federal agency, and over the years there may have been an exaggerated deference paid to federal agencies," he said, noting that many of the state's environmental regulations were written in the 1970s."

And he was smart enough by Dec. 31st to make sure his presence and complaints were aired on CNN, via the local Knoxville TV station WVLT. (Several videos of the press conference are on the site.) UPDATE: Christian at NashvilleIsTalking has the video and full transcript of the press conference.

U.S. Senate hearings on the matter will also be held - and I think the committee will hear some astonishing and very intelligent discussion of the issues involved as they've asked Dr. Stephen Smith, with the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, to testify. He's one of the most informed people in the region on public safety in environmental issues, saying things which need to be said, regardless of the implications to a company's profit margin.

It is most fortunate that the area is not heavily populated, or I am sure there would have been fatalities at the scene. Still, the damage done has altered the area forever, no matter what clean-up takes place.

Thank god for the bloggers across the state and the region who would not give up their constant efforts to inform Tennesseans and the nation about this massive toxic disaster. They made sure the press got involved, and the press helped put pressure on state and national leaders. Much remains to be done, but if the promises are kept, millions of Americans could be safer than they are today.

Wringing The Last Bits of Weirdness from 2008

I mean seriously, this has been a year of just weird wrongness. With just over a day and a half left, I'm actually getting nervous about what shoes are left to drop before 2008 toddles off into the past.

Hopefully not this.

And we all know, don't we, that 2009 is gonna be as hard as nails to get through, so I'm pretty sure the change of the date isn't going to help a whole lot.

Does no one recall all those science fiction stories? Because this is how the bad ones start: "Scientists Plan To Ignite Tiny Man-Made Star".

Perhaps I should not have watched this last night either.

And I am not linking to this.

Please let 2009 be better. Thank you.

Few Answers About Toxic Spill In East Tennessee

Nearly a week after a massive toxic coal ash spill coated hundreds of acres and waterways with over a billion gallons of sludge, officials from TVA met with community members and activists and press reps to try and answer questions. TVA's CEO and President Tom Kilgore was there to answer questions.

One resident who has been blogging about the catastrophe here at Life on Swan Pond has details of the Q and A,

"Water testing; testing started quickly, and continues every 2 hours. Other testing independently being done by EPA and others.

Air quality testing; only done at the TVA Plant. Will begin placing testing equipment in other areas soon... (no clear date/time set, and as I posted before they have not done any Air Quality Testing in locations where there is Ash debris.

Were there emergency plans in place: not for something of this magnitude of ash.

What is in the ash? Mr. Kilgore will have to research and post the results on TVA's website. (yet they sell this ash.. but don't know what's in it?)

What is the dangers of ash? Mr. Kilgore stated they have employees that work in it everyday.. but didn't say that those individuals wore protective gear.

A family that was directly impacted by loss of pasture lands spoke about the loss other their lively-hood and that they had not heard anything from TVA. Mr. Kilgore said they would help, buy hay, etc., and to contact TVA.

What are the dangers of the water for my dogs one resident asked.... after alot of avoiding the direct questions, the resident finally asked bluntly if he should keep his dogs away from the water... the answer was yes.

A family with an expectant mom who is 7 months pregnant asked if it was safe for her to be there... as they have the spill literally in their backyard... again.... no definitive answer. Come by the office if you have questions was often the answer given."

For most all of those in the area, real concerns remain. And if you are like me, you would want to leave the area immediately. When I'm told to "try not to breathe in" the airborne toxins in the environment, it means it is time to leave that area immediately. But how can people keep their jobs and protect their homes and property? And what sense does it make to stay and try and work around a toxic disaster in the hopes it will all work out for the best?

We've had lots of sunshine and fairly warm temps for the last week, which means that the ash will be drying quickly and getting into the air just as quick. So millions of cubic yards of cancer-causing particles will be on any surface that collects dust and dirt and in the air thousands of Tennesseans could be breathing.

If I lived there and had children, I would make them relocate - but what happens when schools in the area re-start in a few days? Livestock and wildlife and the ground and the water will be in harm's way for some time to come. With no clear answers yet on the levels of toxins - what to do? Stay and wait and find out later it is too toxic an area to stay in?

I read too that the EPA reports that many agencies are working on this disaster - "Unified Command consists of EPA, the Roane County Emergency Management Agency (EMA), Tennessee EMA, the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation, and the Tennessee Valley Authority."

But who is in charge at "Unified Command"? Someone from TVA? And where are the elected officials in Tennessee who are talking about this, pushing for answers and demanding actions be taken to insure safety? Kudos to the Kingston City Council for putting the meeting last night together. When Senator Bob Corker appeared on ABC Sunday morning, the disaster got a "sorry we are out of time" response.

And a hotline apparently became available today for residents -- a week after the event.

When something of this magnitude hits the response should be obvious - evacuate the residents and get everyone, even those in the outlying areas, to safety.

And since TVA has admitted they never had any plan for such a possible event as this, then elected officials and residents need to demand plans be created. If this were a commercial company, fines and firings and other changes would apply, would they not?

The Time Machine - An Interactive Adventure with Chad, Matt and Rob

Chad, Matt and Rob have an important meeting at the office in five minutes. Rob is nowhere to be found until he runs up covered, he says, in dinosaur snot. And he has a Time Machine. Strangers arrive at the office and chase the plucky trio so Rob leads them to ----

What happens next is up to you in this very funny interactive video adventure. Others have tried their hand at these short movies where you pick the next action of the characters, and they are pretty terrible. However Chad, Matt and Rob have hit the bullseye here. It's excellent and the trio of actors are very funny, the movies are very well made and are never too afraid to just be as silly as they wish.

So let the adventure of The Time Machine Begin!



Also, check out their website and their other short films - like this one, Roommate Alien Prank Goes Bad.

TVA's Toxic Coal Ash Disaster Impact May Last Years

The nearly 1 billion gallons of toxic coal ash which surged across hundreds of acres in Roane County and into local waterways this week will have an unknowable impact on lives for an unknown time.

There are no regulations in place to document what deadly materials go into these lagoons - despite pleas for years for unified national standards. Much of the reason TVA has not been able to define the dangers of this spill is because they didn't know themselves what was in the lagoon nor were they even sure of the total amount of materials which was stored in the site.

Sue Sturgis reports at Facing South about the testimony presented to a congressional hearing in June from attorney Lisa Evans which was a clear warning about the inevitable effects of not regulating the hazardous waste created from burning coal:

"[S]he warned that the federal government's broken pledge to regulate disposal of the potentially dangerous material threatened the health and safety of communities across the country.

Speaking before a June 10 hearing of the House Subcommittee on Energy and Natural Resources titled "How Should the Federal Government Address the Health and Environmental Risks of Coal Combustion Waste?," Evans pointed out that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said in its Regulatory Determination on Wastes from the Combustion of Fossil Fuels published in 2000 that federal standards for disposal of coal combustion waste were needed to protect public health and the environment.

The federal failure to regulate the waste has put 23 states -- including Tennessee -- in a special bind, since their statutes have "no more stringent" provisions prohibiting them from enacting standards stricter than those found in federal law. Without federal action, those states can't regulate coal combustion waste disposal beyond the few obviously inadequate safeguards that now exist."

Sturgis goes on to report that highly radioactive materials created in the burning process can be deadly:

" ... waste containing potentially dangerous levels of heavy metals including arsenic, cadmium, mercury and lead, as well as radioactive elements such as uranium and thorium -- impurities typically found in coal.

While the company (TVA) is downplaying the hazardous nature of the material, telling the New York Times that it's "inert" and "not toxic or anything," an assessment by the Environmental Protection Agency found that the risk of getting cancer from coal ash lagoons is 10,000 times greater than safety standards allow."

Months of cleanup are ahead, and once the currently wet spill begins to dry, then the toxic materials turn into dust which is then transmitted by airflow.

Dr. Stephen Smith, Executive Director for the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, writes in a press release:

"SACE believes that TVA, TDEC and the EPA should be erring on the side of caution and encouraging residents and others at the site to avoid bodily contact with the ash, which when dried can become airborne. Along with the lead and thallium officially found in the ash, there is a strong probability that levels of arsenic, cadmium and potentially mercury will be found.”

Dr. Smith continued by stressing that safety precautions should be taken by residents in the affected area.

“This is clearly one of the most severe environmental disasters of East Tennessee,” Smith said. “There are multiple pathways in which people can become potentially affected by these heavy metals, including bodily contact, drinking water, air pathways and aquatic wildlife and fish, and we feel that appropriate warnings should be expressed to ensure the safety of Tennessee residents.”

State bloggers, such as Enclave, have noted a massive absence of government response to this disaster:

"The silence of Tennessee's elected officials indicates to me that TVA is actually in the cat bird's seat, and they are in little danger of being held accountable for these events. I fully expect Senators Corker and Alexander (as well as Governor Phil Bredesen) to get behind a new initiative under the pretense of clean-up to convert and to expand TVA's plant and political power in Roane County."


From Christian Grantham at Nashville Is Talking:

"Actually, if you read some of the reports about the smaller coal waste spill in 2000, you'll see the damage spread over weeks through at least a hundred miles of tributaries and streams. TVA says it's taking precautions to prevent this from entering the Tennessee River, but anyone with a brain can see that short of building a dam, that will be impossible.

What it appears TVA is focusing more on (and you can see this in their own online accounts, news reports and releases) is clearing the way for more coal to reach the plant. The troubling fact that TVA is making a calculated decision to use their assets to clear the way for more coal rather than using 100% of their assets to prevent further ecological damage is noted."

From a recent Roane County newspaper report, the Kingston Plant has been slowly converting to a new process to 'scrub' waste emissions which will result in the creation of gypsum ponds, however:

"We want to make it clear we’re spending $500 million to clean up the environment. It is not a bad thing, but it is clearly a visible thing,” TVA spokeswoman Barbara Martocci said.
Officials had hoped to find a market, such as drywall, for the gypsum byproduct of the new scrubber. The slowing economy has ground those possibilities to a halt. “They (the marketplace) have more gypsum than they know what to do with,” said Martocci."

In another recent report from the Roane County News, business designed to create cleaner-burning fuel are just a losing proposition as oil prices - for the moment - have fallen:

"The shuttering of Wright’s company, Blue Sky Biodiesel, won’t wreck the local economy. He had just three employees including himself, but the demise of the business has left him financially and emotionally scarred.
“I’m just kind of down in the dumps right now,” Wright said. “I tapped into my savings in order to make this work.
Wright said his business wasn’t just about profit.Wright said he felt like he was on the front lines of the much-touted fight to energy independence, whipping up batches of biodiesel for use in diesel engines.
“None of us are rich,” he said. “We were all just people with ideas trying to get things done.”

Seems the powers that be are slow to seek changes, and seek instead to continue to rely on the fictions of "clean coal technology" and unreal hopes that fossil fuel - regardless of economic costs and environmental destruction - is a magical creation which serves only to fulfill wishes and dreams.

NBC news did finally lead their nightly report from the scene in the Harriman community on Friday:

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Toxic Spill Threatens East Tennessee

Writers in the blogging world have been hard at work gathering and reporting information from the enormous environmental disaster which saw millions and millions of cubic yards of toxic coal sludge from TVA's Kingston power plant bring destruction across the Roane County countryside and into East Tennessee waterways. (NOTE: Please see my latest update here.)

The first estimate from TVA claimed just over a million cubic yards had roared across the area following the collapse of a dike wall holding back the coal ash waste. Today, they tripled that amount, again "estimating" the total was more like 5.4 million cubic yards.

Some of the best coverage can be found at Enclave - who has been hard at work gathering details, including how the major networks and cable news television totally missed the story and then decided it was newsworthy after all. He also notes United Mountain Defense Report which reports accidents at the site have been common in recent months:

"It maintains that Kingston residents told their correspondents that TVA dealt with leaks in the ash pond wall in 2004, 2006, and a month and a half ago. TVA officials originally speculated that recent excess rain and abnormally low temperatures were possible causes of the breach."

The NYTimes reports:

"Federal studies have long shown coal ash to contain significant quantities of heavy metals like arsenic, lead and selenium, which can cause cancer and neurological problems. But with no official word on the dangers of the sludge in Tennessee, displaced residents spent Christmas Eve worried about their health and their property, and wondering what to do.

Gilbert Francis Jr., a spokesman for the authority: “It does have some heavy metals within it, but it’s not toxic or anything.”

Mr. Francis said contaminants in water samples taken near the spill site and at the intake for the town of Kingston, six miles downstream, were within acceptable levels.

But a draft report last year by the federal Environmental Protection Agency found that fly ash, a byproduct of the burning of coal to produce electricity, does contain significant amounts of carcinogens and retains the heavy metal present in coal in far higher concentrations. The report found that the concentrations of arsenic to which people might be exposed through drinking water contaminated by fly ash could increase cancer risks several hundredfold.

Similarly, a 2006 study by the federally chartered National Research Council found that these coal-burning byproducts “often contain a mixture of metals and other constituents in sufficient quantities that they may pose public health and environmental concerns if improperly managed.” The study said “risks to human health and ecosystems” might occur when these contaminants entered drinking water supplies or surface water bodies.

In 2000, the Environmental Protection Agency proposed stricter federal controls of coal ash, but backed away in the face of fierce opposition from utilities, the coal industry, and Clinton administration officials. At the time, the Edison Electric Institute, an association of power utilities, estimated that the industry would have to spend up to $5 billion in additional cleanup costs if the substance were declared hazardous. Since then, environmentalists have urged tighter federal standards, and the E.P.A. is reconsidering its decision not to classify the waste as hazardous.

Another 2007 E.P.A. report said that over about a decade, 67 towns in 26 states had their groundwater contaminated by heavy metals from such dumps.

For instance, in Anne Arundel County, Md., between Baltimore and Annapolis, residential wells were polluted by heavy metals, including thallium, cadmium and arsenic, leaching from a sand-and-gravel pit where ash from a local power plant had been dumped since the mid-1990s by the Baltimore Gas and Electric Company."

At the Knoxville News Sentinel, blogger Michael Silence has more, as does the KNS' Jack Lail.

RoaneViews writers are also on the story.

There are many questions about current safety, officials ever-changing stories and what -if any - health issues are being aggressively pursued. Since TVA's CEO just earned a record multi-million dollar salary, let's see if he is worth it. As Senator Lamar Alexander told the press in October when news of the massive pay raise was made:

"The TVA board should be sensitive to keeping its costs down, especially at a time when Tennesseans are hurting,” he said. “But TVA is the largest utility in the country and it’s got to recruit competent people to run the agency, including its nuclear plants, and it need pay them a competitive wage in order to keep them."

Many people are truly in peril today due to this massive disaster, Mr. Senator. And let's hope like hell competence is the least of their virtues.

Annual Christmas Music Collection, Part Three

Here is the third and final installment for Christmas music 2008 (Check out parts One and Two).

I hope you've enjoyed the tunes - and I did try and not pick out too many over-played holiday tunes. This third installment starts Elvis and moves on to Lisa Loeb and the Barenaked Ladies and Sarah McLachlan, and there is one from the unstoppable Bootsy Collins and concludes one of my favorites from James Brown.

Merry Christmas to one and all and please oh please have yourself a Merry Christmas and a Fine 2009.


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