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.


SeeqPod - Playable Search

The Financial Bailout vs. The Auto Industry

Hilzoy makes some points which seem to elude not only Congress, but many average Americans:

"The financial executives helped cause the present meltdown. Auto workers did not.

* The financial executives run their firms, and are responsible for their troubles. Auto workers and their union, by contrast, just got themselves a good deal by bargaining with management. That's their prerogative. I don't see that they're any more to blame for the problems of the Big Three than people who accept unduly large cash back bonuses on their new cars would be, had the Big Three miscalculated and given away more in cash-back bonuses than they could afford.

* Financial executives have just destroyed a tremendous amount of value and ruined the global economy. Auto workers have been busy creating useful things.

* In exchange for destroying value, financial executives get paid a whole lot more than auto workers. Orders of magnitude more. They even get multi-million dollar performance bonuses when their firms lose money! And their benefits are a lot more cushy: not just good health care but private jets and chauffeurs!

* Punishing financial executives helps reduce moral hazard. Punishing auto workers does not.

Honestly: what sense does it make to stick it to a bunch of auto workers while letting the financial executives off scot-free? How can Richard Shelby get all upset about the fact that some blue-collar workers have, gasp, health care, and not about the fact that financial executives, on whom we have spent a lot more money than the Big Three ever asked for, get financial planners and chauffeurs? Just imagine the furious oratory we might have heard had the UAW succeeded in negotiating benefits like the ones people get at Goldman Sachs. (I'll bet chauffeurs would help auto workers concentrate more on their jobs...)

For the reasons given above, I think that we should stick it to the bankers and hedge fund managers, and not to the UAW. However, I'd be happy with a single standard uniformly applied. rok for dean at dKos has a good idea:

"In 1950, the average pay of an S&P 500 CEO was less than 30 times that of an average U.S. worker; by 1980, prior to the "Reagan Revolution, the average pay of the S&P 500 CEO was approximately 50 times higher than that of an average U.S worker. But by 2007, the average pay of an S&P 500 CEO had soared to more than 350 times as much as that of an average U.S. worker.

This is both immoral and unsustainable in a democracy. By way of comparison, in Europe, an average CEO only makes 22 times as much as an average worker, and in Japan, only 17 times as much.

If America wants to be competitive again, we need to reduce CEO pay to a level comparable to CEO pay in Europe and Japan. I know exactly how to accomplish this feat. The UAW should agree to immediately lower U.S. union worker pay to a level equal to the level paid by their non-union, non-American competitors. In return, auto CEO’s must agree to permanently lower their compensation to only 20 times that of an average union worker.

Once this has been accomplished, Congress must move to apply the same pay standards to AIG and all of the financial institutions that took one penny of taxpayer money from the TARP fund."

And what of foreign automakers, like Toyota?

"On Monday, Toyota said it expected a loss during the fiscal year of 150 billion yen, or $1.7 billion, in its group operating revenue, the amount it earns from its auto operations. Toyota said that would be its first annual operating loss since 1938, a year after the company was founded.

The loss would also be a huge reversal from the 2.3 trillion yen, or $28 billion, in operating profit Toyota earned last fiscal year. The company, which has been neck and neck with General Motors to be the world’s largest vehicle-maker, said it still expected to eke out a narrow net profit in the current fiscal year, which ends March 31.

The company, which just a few months ago seemed unstoppable after eight consecutive years of record profits, said it suffered from plunging vehicle sales not only in North America but even in once-promising markets like India and China, which many had hoped would prove immune to the United States malaise.

“The change in the world economy is of a magnitude that comes once every hundred years,” Toyota’s president, Katsuaki Watanabe, told a news conference in Nagoya, Japan, near the company’s Toyota City headquarters. “We are facing an unprecedented emergency.”

Be A Movie Maker With MTV and Flip

MTV and a video camera company called Flip have been hard at work to create a totally user-created broadcast on MTV, made by all kinds of young people around the nation.

The Flip is a simple hand-held camera with razor sharp pictures, built in software interface, and microphone and a customizable design, and is incredibly easy to use. By partnering with MTV, all content created ends up on a special MTV program and is posted MTV online as well.

To get started, 100 people were given free Flips. Users created the content and sent it in and a totally user-created media is now up and running. And media outlets across the nation are giving rave reviews to the whole idea, from The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, CBS News, Entertainment Tonight, USA Today, The Washington Post, Business Week, Times, Forbes, PC World and more.

The MTV site has tons of videos out now for you to watch by clicking here. And you can learn more about The Flip and all it can do here.

The MTV site also has details on how you can watch the videos and grab your own free Flip too.

It's all up to the video makers to decide what to create and share, and as MTV says "Different themes guided them, some were open-ended, others were scavenger hunts and others were questions only they could answer. "

Some of the categories folks are using to make their short videos include:

1. Worst Date
2. Awake, Alive, Surprises
3. News Near Me
4. Last Dream I Remember
5. 1:02 Thursday - This Just Happened
6. Bridges, Rhinos, Chandeliers
7. Share a Secret
8. If I Could Change 1 Thing About The World

And every day another free Flip is being offered -- the details are all here.

Here's just one sample vid, about what was making the news for one video maker:

MTV - Music Videos - MTV Shows - Celebrity News

Annual Christmas Music Collection, Part Two

Here is the second part of the annual Christmas music collection for 2008, this one has an all jazz theme. (Part One is here.) Look for a third part in the next few days.

Also, if you have a favorite song and artist, please mention it in the comments. Merry Ho-Ho! (image via Square America)


SeeqPod - Playable Search

What Should Santa Monkey Say?

One day I'll seek the backstory for this holiday image.

Maybe.

For me (and many readers here) Santa Monkey has been a holiday tradition here dating back to the first Christmas with a Cup of Joe Powell.

So here be Santa Monkey again.

And this year - won't you please offer a comment as to what Santa Monkey should say for Christmas 2008?

My suggestions for the caption would be:

"Once a year I throw candy at people. The rest of the year, it ain't really candy."

Or:

"I'd like to thank Governor Blagojevitch for selling me - I mean appointing - the chance to be Santa Claus."

Or:

"First we'll make snow angels for a two hours, then we'll go ice skating, then we'll eat a whole roll of Tollhouse Cookiedough as fast as we can, and then we'll snuggle."

Neo Bush and The Shoe Matrix

The president does battle against the Shoe People in Baghdad. (many more variations on the Flying Shoe of Protest via Boing Boing.)

The Mega List of Lists of 2008

It is the List of All Lists of the Best of 2008 from Fimoculous. Yes, the annual collection of the best in '08 compiles selections in categories like in advertising, architecture, art, automobiles, books, business, comedy, dance, design, dvds, fashion, film, food and drink, gadgets, games, ideas, media, music, online, paranormal, people, photos, politics, religion, sports, science, technology, theater, toys, travel, tv, videos, words/searches, plus archives for lists going back to 2001.

It may take until 2010 to read thru them all.

Sen. Corker's Wild Ride

Senator Bob Corker of Tennessee is learning that jumping up to shout "I can fix the automakers bailout program!!" was not his best idea. Especially that part of his plan calling for altering the pay scales for workers -- as has been noted, that idea for controlling wages was never a part of the banking bailout.

Enclave points to this article by Paul Krugman:

"No, I’m not talking about Bob Corker, the Senator from Nissan — I mean Tennessee — and his fellow Republicans, who torpedoed last week’s attempt to buy some time for the U.S. auto industry. (Why was the plan blocked? An e-mail message circulated among Senate Republicans declared that denying the auto industry a loan was an opportunity for Republicans to “take their first shot against organized labor.”)"

Ouch!

R. Neal at KnoxViews also has a Corker Rebuke:

"We should never have entered into discussions with Sen. Corker, but we did because of the importance of what was going on here," Gettelfinger said. "And it failed. And it's not because we didn't have a tentative agreement. It's because" Corker "could not deliver at the end of the day."

Next up - I'm waiting for the ads to start running which show a picture of Sen. Corker with the caption "Would you buy a used car from this man?"

From the Washington Post, some folks in Spring Hill say:

"Our pay is nothing like what people say it is on the news," said Barbara Walker, who works at the plant, as does her husband. "I think Bob Corker stinks, I really do. I even sent an e-mail to him. He never responded to me at all."

"What Bob Corker is is a union buster, plain and simple," said Brian Kerr, 46, who has worked 28 years for GM. "We set the wage rates for the other plants in the state. Without us, they will be making $10 an hour."

He uttered a vulgarity and said "that's the nicest word I can use about him."

"Anyone who calls himself an American and wants to get rid of American jobs isn't worth much in my book," said Tim Kinjorski, 50, a plant worker. "He's been blinded by his own hatred of the unions."

Odd too that while southern states dole out billions to "help" car makers decide to locate in the South, southern reps in congress say no to aiding U.S. auto makers in financial turmoil, no matter the long-term economic costs. This list via Facing South shows these lures have been worth nearly $4 billion.

UPDATE:

I need to add here I have no sympathy for the car industry since for the last 30 years they have steered far, far away from alternative fuel vehicles despite the demand from consumers and the inevitable costs of dependency on foreign providers for oil.

Whatever fate may or may not be deserved by such refusals, another massive industrial and economic collapse is rapidly approaching an already deeply wounded nation. It seems we are poised to provide not only billions to foreign nations for fuel, but billions more for the very machines which use that fuel.