Blue Crab Boulevard

This is a very, very interesting late night at the Crabitat. I just finished the previous post and then found this little jackpot of all jackpots for the day. San Francisco bans plastic bags and cuts down more trees as a result. That's amusing, the next item is hilarious. There have been repeated mentions in the news lately of efforts to ban incandescent light bulbs and mandate the use of compact fluorescent bulbs instead. Only it turns out those bulbs pose another  - really large - problem.

Mercury.

With an estimated 150 million CFLs sold in the United States in 2006 and with Wal-Mart alone hoping to sell 100 million this year, some scientists and environmentalists are worried that most are ending up in garbage dumps.

Mercury is probably best-known for its effects on the nervous system. The Mad Hatter in the classic children's book "Alice in Wonderland" was based on 19th-century hat makers who were continually exposed to the toxin.

Mercury can also damage the kidneys and liver, and in sufficient quantities can cause death.

U.S. regulators, manufacturers and environmentalists note that, because CFLs require less electricity than traditional incandescent bulbs, they reduce overall mercury in the atmosphere by cutting emissions from coal-fired power plants.

But some of the mercury emitted from landfills is in the form of vaporous methyl-mercury, which can get into the food chain more readily than inorganic elemental mercury released directly from a broken bulb or even coal-fired power plants, according to government scientist Steve Lindberg.

"Disposal of any mercury-contaminated material in landfills is absolutely alarming to me," said Lindberg, emeritus fellow of the U.S. Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

The mercury content in the average CFL — now about 5 milligrams — would fit on the tip of a ballpoint pen, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and manufacturers have committed to cap the amount in most CFLs to 5 milligrams or 6 milligrams per bulb.

The majority of Philips Lighting's bulbs contain less than 3 milligrams, and some have as little as 1.23 milligrams, said spokesman Steve Goldmacher.

To prevent mercury from getting into landfills, the EPA, CFL makers and various organizations advocate recycling.

Funny how complicated it all really is in the real world, isn't it? A lot of advocacy groups push single solutions to complex issues - and those single solutions are sometimes actually creating more but slightly different problems. Some of the different problems are actually worse than the ones the single issue solution initially addressed. For example: it is all very well to force the use of highly efficient light bulbs. Then you have to mandate recycling to keep these out of landfills. But that brings up a few little, teeny questions:

What happens when you break one of these inside your home? Will it be mandated next that hazmat teams have to decontaminate your home? Better yet: will you, personally, become legally responsible if the buyer of your home down the road finds that there is mercury contamination as a result of a light bulb breaking while you owned the house? These are not insignificant questions, folks.

Nancy Pelosi's home base, San Francisco, has just passed a new and improved, supposedly environmentally-friendly new law that perfectly illustrates the fundamental problem with a lot of hard line environmental "solutions" being pushed right now. The City Council has passed a ban on plastic grocery bags. This is now going to lead to an interesting problem.

All those trees Algore has been touting as "carbon offsets" will now have to be cut down to provide paper bags for the folks in San Francisco.

The law, passed by a 10-1 vote, requires large markets and drug stores to give customers only a choice among bags made of paper that can be recycled, plastic that breaks down easily enough to be made into compost, or reusable cloth.

San Francisco supervisors and supporters said that by banning the petroleum-based sacks, blamed for littering streets and choking marine life, the measure would go a long way toward helping the city earn its green stripes.

"Hopefully, other cities and states will follow suit," said Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi, who crafted the ban after trying to get a 15-cent per bag tax passed in 2005.

The 50 grocery stores that would be most affected by the law argued that the ban was not reasonable because plastic bags made of corn byproducts are a relatively new, expensive and untested product. Some said they might offer only paper bags at checkout.

I'll have to look into the "corn byproduct" bags, but this is one of those feel good political moves that essentially just pushes the problem elsewhere. More trees will be cut down to make paper bags, which stops the use of plastic in one city. But the trees won't be cut in California, so they feel good in San Francisco. Meanwhile, the trees harvested won't be helping to curb CO2. One of the funniest lines in the story is this particular gem:

The new breed of bags "offers consumers a way out of a false choice, a way out of the paper or plastic dilemma," Noble said.

How about the false choice of pushing the problem elsewhere? Where will it eventually be pushed to? Right out of the US and onto developing nations. There is a fundamental, narcissistic flaw in the modern environmental activist groups. Using corn to fuel vehicles instead of feeding people - at a ridiculous loss in efficiency - they tout as "environmentally friendly". Cutting down trees to bag groceries is called  "environmentally friendly." Encouraging Al "Gorezilla" Gore to flit all over the world in a massively carbon-emitting private jet, while consuming gargantuan amounts of electricity for his palatially expansive mansion - while cheerfully strip-mining Tennessee - is "environmentally friendly."

With friends like these……

Alison Krauss has a new/old CD out called A Hundred Miles or More. It is a compilation of a number of previously released songs done for various projects she has done through the years along with five new tracks. And it is wonderful. She has a great set of pipes, Ms. Krauss does. (This CD was given to me - which is a long story that I won't go into.) But one of the songs on the CD is a duet with John Waite doing a cover of his 1984 hit Missing You. Which happens to be posted over at YouTube, so here is one track of the 16 that are on this wonderful new album. (There are other duets as well, with James Taylor for example.) Enjoy.

A Maryland woman is absolutely convinced that her golden retriever performed a Heimlich maneuver on her. No, really, she does.

Debbie Parkhurst, 45, of Calvert told the Cecil Whig she was eating an apple at her home Friday when a piece lodged in her throat. She attempted to perform the Heimlich maneuver on herself but it didn't work. After she began beating on her chest, she said Toby noticed and got involved.

"The next think I know, Toby's up on his hind feet and he's got his front paws on my shoulders," she recalled. "He pushed me to the ground, and once I was on my back, he began jumping up and down on my chest."

That's when the apple dislodged and Toby started licking her face to keep her from passing out, she said.

"I literally have pawprint-shaped bruises on my chest. I'm still a little hoarse, but otherwise, I'm OK," Parkhurst said.

Now, having owned a golden retriever myself (an AKC registered, show-quality dog, too), I can state, with some authority that goldens, as a rule are wonderful dogs. They are also dumber than a box of rocks. Especially when you are a) petting them (the lights go out completely in those big, brown eyes) or b) playing with them or c) there is food involved. I think the dog's owner is mistaking Toby's behavior. It wasn't medical intervention.

The golden was after the apple. Bet on it.

(I 'spect I'll hear about this post from a couple of people I email with!)

Gangs of "youths" went berserk in a Paris train station today, rioting and looting stores. A number of police officers were injured in the mêlée. At least 10 people have been arrested.

Officials said about 100 people were involved in the mêlée at Gare du Nord, one of Paris' most important transport hubs. Officers and police dogs fired tear gas and charged at groups of marauding youths, some of them wearing hoods and swinging metal bars.

The youths responded by throwing trash cans and other objects at the officers. A group of youths smashed the windows of a sporting goods store and looted boxes of shoes. Others attacked automatic drink dispensers and set fire to an information booth.

In one of the more disingenuous statements ever made by the AP in, they say the riot "did not appear directly related to France's presidential election." Now that's a "duh", isn't it? Later in the story, one person says that this is just the same rioting that has been happening since at least 2005; it has never really finished, just kept simmering quietly with occasional flare-ups.

Knut, the kute, the polar bear cub who became a star at the Berlin Zoo after "animal rights activists" demanded that he be killed at once, has decided that he is taking over the zoo, apparently. He started right off by whacking his main rival for the crowd's affections. That's right, the panda got it. Shanked in a midnight raid by the kute, kuddly killer bear.

Just four days after the euphoria over the debut of three-and-a-half-month-old "Cuddly Knut", the mysterious death of Chinese-born Yan Yan stole the headlines in Tuesday's German newspapers.

Top-selling Bild reported the influx of visitors to the zoo — about 30,000 a day — could have stressed the black and white bear, who spent much of her time lying on her back chomping at bamboo shoots.

"Lots of people gave up on seeing Knut because of the long queues, so they went to see Yan Yan instead. She seemed intimidated and anxious," wrote the paper, suggesting Yan Yan could have had a heart attack.

Berlin Zoo denied any link.

"I can say with absolute certainty that there was no connection between Yan Yan's death and Knut," said a spokesman.

Notice the quick denial by the zoo staff. They know it's really not a good idea to - er - rat out a "made" polar bear. (The polar bear mafia is more fearsome than the Animal Uprising™. Those pictures of polar bears on the ice flows in the wide open water? Set adrift to sleep with the fishes after losing a turf - er ice - war.) Our sources tell us that there was a "rumble" in the "yard" and the panda's luck ran out. Our sources appear to have located an extremely large supply of schnapps while visiting Berlin, too. And they appear not to have saved any for us, either.

After Nancy Pelosi and John "Unindicted Co-Conspirator" Murtha led a slim majority of the House Democrats (plus two Republicans) one pork chop too far with their supplementary spending bill, about the worst thing that could happen is for the surge to begin working in Iraq. Which it appears to be doing. Reports are coming in that the Iraqis are turning on al Qaeda. The progress is such that the media can't even ignore it.

By The Way, It’s Official …

… we can win in Iraq, we are winning in Iraq, and George Bush’s surge strategy is responsible for it.  Not even the AP can ignore it* anymore:  

The US military has captured the leaders of a car-bombing ring blamed for killing hundreds of Iraqis.

The news came as the departing US ambassador said Americans are in ongoing talks with insurgent representatives to try to persuade them to turn against al-Qaeda.

It is noteworthy, though the AP can’t quite bring itself to note it, that the anti-al-Qaeda Sunni insurgents have advanced beyond the Democratic congressional leadership in their thinking:

Khalilzad said the talks have shifted from “unreasonable demands” by the groups for a US withdrawal to forming an alliance against al-Qaeda. He said the effort has gained support among tribal leaders and even some insurgents.

“Iraqis are uniting against al-Qaeda,” he said.

The House Democratic leadership bet the farm on losing in Iraq. If they bet wrong, they are going to have some very tough sledding in the next election. They will have provided their opponents the club with which they will rightfully get beaten. It begins to look like they bet very badly indeed.

This appears to be the week for tough news. First it was Elizabeth Edwards who found that her breast cancer had returned. Today comes word the Tony Snow has had a recurrence of his colon cancer. Best wishes for Tony Snow in this. He has told people he will fight back against this.

WASHINGTON (AP) - Presidential spokesman Tony Snow's surgery to remove a small growth showed that his cancer has returned, the White House said Tuesday.

Snow, 51, had his colon removed in 2005 and underwent six months of chemotherapy after being diagnosed with colon cancer. A small growth was discovered last year in his lower right pelvic area, and it was removed on Monday. Doctors determined that it was cancerous, and that his cancer had metastized, or spread, to his liver, White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said.

Like I said, a tough week. All the best to both of them.

Like I said, a tough week. All the best to both of them.

In the strangest case of counterfeiting yet discovered, the BBC is trying hard to explain why their ersatz Easter program is just a bit of fiscal responsibility. No, really, they made a  counterfeit Easter.

LONDON (AFP) - The BBC on Monday defended a decision to record an upcoming Easter religious show last November, saying it saved money by recording the programme at the same time as a Christmas cathedral broadcast.

The two episodes of the weekly Sunday religious show "Songs of Praise" were recorded one after the other four months ago at Lichfield Cathedral, the broadcaster confirmed, saying it was "unlikely" viewers would notice.

"There was no deception on the part of the BBC because we made it perfectly clear to the cathedral authorities and congregation," said a BBC spokesman.

"Particularly somewhere like Lichfield Cathedral, we go there and record two programmes in one place because it's a better use of resources and time for taking the cathedral out of use.

The taping of the two shows was revealed by the bishop of Lichfield, the Right Reverend Jonathan Gledhill. He says that the BBC changed the flowers and used bright lights shining through the windows to make it appear that the show had been taped in the spring. Now, we'd like to suggest how the BBC could make it even more realistic, in the Hollywood sense of the word, anyway: add a car chase and some ring girls! Everyone would know it was fake, but they wouldn't care!

Australia, home of the kangaroo, the emu, the platypus and many other highly improbable creatures now is producing toads the size of dogs. It's all part of the Animal Uprising™ and the surrender of the Australians to the animal overlords, of course.

With a body the size of a football and weighing nearly 2 pounds, the toad is among the largest specimens ever captured in Australia, according to Frogwatch coordinator Graeme Sawyer.

"It's huge, to put it mildly," he said. "The biggest toads are usually females but this one was a rampant male … I would hate to meet his big sister."

Frogwatch, which is dedicated to wiping out a toxic toad species that has killed countless Australian animals, picked up the 15-inch-long cane toad during a raid on a pond outside the northern city of Darwin late Monday.

Do not miss the picture (Yahoo link, so it will expire. I'll try to get a permanent link up there if I can find it). Oh, sure, they say they are going to cook the beastie up into a batch of fertilizer, but we strongly suspect it has just been added to the genetic experiments the animals are conducting. The next frontier: toads the size of Volkswagens!