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sheaman42

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Shea is a 31 year old guy from Portland, Maine, USA

I cover green politics, renewable energy, and climate change for MNN.com, play a lot of Ultimate Frisbee, and love living a greener small city life in Portland, Maine.

  • Yo Gabba Gabba video on yubby - The Jack Black Jig

    Rated 09:57am • 3 reviews • dancing, kids, bizarre, jack black, yo gabba gabba • yubby.com

    Jack Black is rad.
    287 views
    Yo Gabba Gabba video on yubby - The Jack Black Jig

  • Homeland Insecurity - The Atlantic(September 2002)

    Rated 09:37am • 1 review • science, security, safety, homeland security • theatlantic.com

    The way people think about security, especially security on computer networks, is almost always wrong. All too often planners seek technological cure-alls, when such security measures at best limit risks to acceptable levels. In particular, the consequences of going wrong--and all these systems go wrong sometimes--are rarely considered. For these reasons Schneier believes that most of the security measures envisioned after September 11 will be ineffective, and that some will make Americans less safe.
    149 views
    Homeland Insecurity - The Atlantic(September 2002)

  • Bhopal: The victims are still being born - Asia,...

    Rated 05:58am • 1 review • health, india, poison, environment, pollution, bhopal • independent.co.uk

    Bhopal is a calamity without end. On 3 December 1984, clouds of poison leaking from a Union Carbide pesticides plant brought death to thousands in this central Indian city. Today, fully a quarter of a century later, victims of this, the world's worst industrial disaster, are still being born.

    Here, in neighbourhoods where people depend on water contaminated by chemicals leaking from the abandoned factory and to mothers exposed to the toxic gas as children, brain damaged and malformed babies are 10 times more common than the national average. Doctors at Bhopal's Sambhavna Clinic say that as many as one in 25 babies are still born with defects and developmental problems such as a smaller head, webbed feet and low birth weight.

    Those who were mere children when the fumes overcame this city of a million are suffering, too. Painful skin lesions, stomach problems and raw, itchy eyes are common complaints among thousands of families, some of whom moved to Bhopal only in recent years. And the clinic says that Bhopal now has some of India's highest rates of gall bladder and oesophageal cancers, TB, anaemia and thyroid abnormalities. Young girls start menstruating much later than normal and experience painful gynaecological problems, which often lead to hysterectomies at a young age.
    93 views
    Bhopal: The victims are still being born - Asia, World - The Independent

  • Iraq: The

    Rated 08:37pm • 3 reviews • politics, war, war in iraq, george bush, tony blair • independent.co.uk

    Tony Blair will be quizzed over a devastating official memo warning him that war on Iraq would be illegal eight months before he sent troops into Baghdad, it was claimed last night.

    The Chilcot inquiry into the Iraq war will consider a letter from Lord Goldsmith, then Mr Blair's top law officer, advising him that deposing Saddam would be in breach of international law, according to a report in The Mail on Sunday.

    But Mr Blair refused to accept Lord Goldsmith's advice and instead issued instructions for his long-term friend to be "gagged" and barred from cabinet meetings, the newspaper claimed. Lord Goldsmith apparently lost three stone, and complained he was "more or less pinned to the wall" in a No 10 showdown with two of Mr Blair's most loyal aides, Lord Falconer and Baroness Morgan. Mr Blair also allegedly failed to inform the Cabinet of the warning, fearing an "anti-war revolt".
    155 views
    Iraq: The

  • Op-Ed Columnist - Taxing the Speculators - NYTimes.com

    Rated Nov 27 • 1 review • economics, investing, tax, speculation • nytimes.com

    Should we use taxes to deter financial speculation? Yes, say top British officials, who oversee the City of London, one of the world's two great banking centers. Other European governments agree -- and they're right.

    Unfortunately, United States officials -- especially Timothy Geithner, the Treasury secretary -- are dead set against the proposal. Let's hope they reconsider: a financial transactions tax is an idea whose time has come.

    The dispute began back in August, when Adair Turner, Britain's top financial regulator, called for a tax on financial transactions as a way to discourage "socially useless" activities. Gordon Brown, the British prime minister, picked up on his proposal, which he presented at the Group of 20 meeting of leading economies this month.
    1 view
    Op-Ed Columnist - Taxing the Speculators - NYTimes.com

  • Scientist explains why climate scientists talk trash -...

    Rated Nov 26 • 1 review • science, climate change, data • boingboing.net

    Dr Peter Watts, a PhD biologist and a hell of a science fiction writer, talks about what it means that a bunch of climate scientists

    Science doesn't work despite scientists being asses. Science works, to at least some extent, because scientists are asses. Bickering and backstabbing are essential elements of the process. Haven't any of these guys ever heard of "peer review"?

    There's this myth in wide circulation: rational, emotionless Vulcans in white coats, plumbing the secrets of the universe, their Scientific Methods unsullied by bias or emotionalism. Most people know it's a myth, of course; they subscribe to a more nuanced view in which scientists are as petty and vain and human as anyone (and as egotistical as any therapist or financier), people who use scientific methodology to tamp down their human imperfections and manage some approximation of objectivity.

    But that's a myth too. The fact is, we are all humans; and humans come with dogma as standard equipment. We can no more shake off our biases than Liz Cheney could pay a compliment to Barack Obama. The best we can do-- the best science can do-- is make sure that at least, we get to choose among competing biases.
    99 views
    Scientist explains why climate scientists talk trash - Boing Boing

  • http://blogs.reuters.com/great-debate/2009/11/24/a-parado...

    Rated Nov 26 • 1 review • cooking, america, obesity, hunger, paradox • reuters.com

    From the page: "Call it a paradox of plenty. In the worldâ€s wealthiest country, home to more obese people than anywhere else on earth, almost 50 million Americans struggled to feed themselves and their children in 2008. Thatâ€s one in six of the population. Millions went hungry, at least some of the time. Things are bound to get worse.

    This the bleak picture drawn from an annual survey on â€oehousehold food security” compiled by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and released in mid-November. It showed the highest level of food insecurity since the government started the survey, in 1995, and provided a graphic illustration of the effect of sharply rising unemployment.

    This yearâ€s picture will be even bleaker - the unemployment rate more than doubled from the beginning of 2008 to now, at 10.2 percent the highest in a quarter century. It is still climbing, and for many the distance between losing a job and lack of food security is very short.

    In keeping with the American predilection for euphemisms, the word â€oehunger” does not appear in the report which classes food security into several categories, from â€oemarginal” and â€oelow” to â€oevery low.”"
    10 views
    http://blogs.reuters.com/great-debate/2009/11/24/a-paradox-of-plenty-hunger-in-america/

  • Glenn Greenwald - Salon.com

    Rated Nov 26 • 1 review • politics, republicans, john bolton • salon.com

    From the page: "John Bolton is the prototypical right-wing pseudo-tough-guy: cheering on every war he can find without ever getting near any of them. And as usual for this strain of play-acting, chest-beating warrior, all of the belligerence and craving of vicarious power masks a deep and pitiful cowardice. That is often the principal purpose of warmongering from a distance. Yesterday, Bolton -- on "Washington Times Radio" -- revealed that he is so petrified of Terrorists that he would not feel safe in New York City during the trial of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and would not even allow his family there (audio here):"
    10 views
    Glenn Greenwald - Salon.com

  • The Beginning of the End - Funny Videos | Cracked.com

    Rated Nov 26 • 1 review • video, funny, cracked • cracked.com

    funny shit.
    14 views
    The Beginning of the End - Funny Videos | Cracked.com

  • Obama Protecting Fewer Endangered Species than Bush :...

    Rated Nov 26 • 1 review • animals, obama, endangered species, president obama • treehugger.com

    President Bush was certainly not known for his dedication for protecting endangered species--his delisting of gray wolves, for example, caused a furor among environmentalists, and he notoriously dragged his feet in adding threatened species to the protected list. In contrast, George H.W. Bush added an average of 58 species to the endangered list every year during his presidency. Clinton added an average of 61. Bush added only 11. But Obama is doing even worse--so far, with only two species added, Obama is coming up last.

    As such, he's testing the patience of many environmentalists who were counting on more sympathetic ears in the White House. The opening sentence in a report from Greenwire is alarming in and of itself: "The Obama administration is lagging behind the pace set by its predecessor for listing endangered species, and some environmentalists are not happy." Especially considering that the pace set by his predecessor was glacial at best.
    78 views
    Obama Protecting Fewer Endangered Species than Bush : TreeHugger