Tuesday, March 30, 2010

PABeaufaitBookmarks 03/30/2010


Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Monday, March 29, 2010

PABeaufaitBookmarks 03/29/2010


Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Monday, March 22, 2010

Remember the Exxon Valdez

Keep off the gas!

This post follows on from Aren't Otters Extraordinarily Cute (pab's potpourri, 2009.04.01), 21 years on from the event that inspired composition of these bits and pieces. Pictures remind us vividly what our dependence on oil costs. If you need a graphic reminder, please check out these collections:

Further consequences of the Valdez spillage

Though a corporate piece on Spill prevention says,"The clean-up was declared complete by the State of Alaska and the U.S. Coast Guard in 1992" (ExxonMobil, [no date]), that must have been in reference to  immediate and superficial clean-up, rather than restoration, and Mapes suggests undetected harm was still coming to light: 
"Still to be litigated is a claim against Exxon by the federal government and state of Alaska for $92 million in so-called "re-opener" damages, intended to help pay for environmental harm not detected at the time of the spill."
 (Mapes, 2008, The damage remains, ¶4)

Alaska's Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Trustee Council paints a grim picture, not three but ten years after the Valdez ran ground:
"...[O]ne of the most stunning revelations of Trustee Council-funded monitoring over the last ten years is that Exxon Valdez oil persists in the environment and[,] in places, is nearly as toxic as it was the first few weeks after the spill."
 (Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Trustee Council, no date, Status of Restoration, Lingering oil, ¶1)
"The amount of Exxon Valdez oil remaining substantially exceeds the sum total of all previous oil pollution on beaches in Prince William Sound, including oil spilled during the 1964 earthquake. This Exxon Valdez oil is decreasing at a rate of 0-4% per year, with only a 5% chance that the rate is as high as 4%. At this rate, the remaining oil will take decades and possibly centuries to disappear entirely."
(Exxon ValdezOil Spill Trustee Council, no date, Status of Restoration Lingering oil, ¶4)

Who has payed what price?

Who was ship's Master during the spill?

"Hazelwood was acquitted on all felony charges, but was convicted of a misdemeanor charge of negligent discharge of oil, fined $50,000, and sentenced to 1,000 hours of community service" (Wikipedia, Joseph Hazelwood, Exxon Valdez oil spill, ¶ 2 [2010.03.22]).

What says ExxonMobil?

A blurb on a corporate current issues web page says they "took immediate responsibility for the spill and have spent over $3.8 billion as a result of the accident, including compensatory payments, cleanup payments, settlements and fines" (ExxonMobil, 2009). That blurb doesn't specify what part of that $3.8, up from $3.5 (ExxonMobil, 2007) includes money spent on legal fees and court costs through appeals:
  1. To the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals to reduce punitive damages from 4.5 to 2.5 billion (ExxonMobil, 2006), and then
  2. To "the Supreme Court [which] slashed those damages to about $500 million" (Lanfitt, 2008, ¶1).
Lanfitt's report, based on Associated Press sources, explains: "The high court said ... punitive damages shouldn't be any larger than the compensatory damages the company had already been ordered to pay" (2008, ¶3). Supreme Court records show the "case remanded to the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit to remit punitive damages award accordingly" (Supreme Court of the United States, 2008, Opinions, No. 07-219, p. 1035).

A Seattle Times article pegs that figure at $507.5 million (Mapes, 2008, ¶2), and a factoid in the sidebar of that article suggests that it will take Exxon "about 12 hours of sales" to recoup that amount. ExxonMobil calls it $508 million (no date, ¶2).

How are our maths? (in rough billions USD)

3.8 Spent (ExxonMobil, 2009)
- 0.5 Compensation ordered (Mapes, 2008)
- 0.5 Punitive damages (Lanfit, 2008)
2.8 Other expenditures

Do those other expenditures include Exxon's legal costs? Mapes (2008) suggests there were "more than 60 / law firms involved" (sidebar: The spill by the numbers: The money).

When next where: Five more years till double hulls?

The U.S. "Congress has enacted legislation requiring all tankers to be double-hulled by 2015" (Wikipedia, 2010, Other consquences, ¶1). What about other countries?


Better keep our feet off the gas for a few more years.


References


PABeaufaitBookmarks 03/22/2010


Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Sunday, March 21, 2010

PABeaufaitBookmarks 03/21/2010


Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Saturday, March 20, 2010

"We are they" (Lessig, Webside Chat @ Harvard).

Live at Harvard University - slides and audio


(Lawrence Lessig, Blip.tv, 2010.02.25 [42:15])

Removed from YouTube

"... since Lessig’s slidecast ... contained 15-second clips of copyrighted music by Warner Music" (Adi Kamdar, Open Video Alliance, Irony: Wireside Chat with Lawrence Lessig Silenced by Copyright, 2010.03.??)

"... [W]e are currently working on a high quality archived version of the speech" (Neil Bates, Flumotion, Lawrence Lessig Wireside Chat on Copyright Silenced by Copyright, 2010.03.10)

Friday, March 19, 2010

PABeaufaitBookmarks 03/19/2010

  • "Some roles relate to the task aspect of the group, while others promote social interaction. A third set of roles are self-centered and can be destructive for the group" (Roles in Groups, ¶1).

    tags: Allyn & Bacon, activities, communication, groups, quizzes, roles

    • Some roles relate to the task aspect of the group, while others promote social interaction. A third set of roles are self-centered and can be destructive for the group.

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Thursday, March 18, 2010

'Bout time for a human post, eh? How 'bout some web radio fav's?

Radio stations discovered in iTunes:

  • Ambient
Radio Arcadia: "la radio la plus zen du web..." (radionomy.com, radioarcadie.be/ [Belgium])
TOP FM Ambient: "1ère RADIO CELTIQUE DE FRANCE" (TOP FM WEBRADIOS GRATUITES)
  • Blues
Cajun Fest: "Cajun, Zydeco and Bayou favorites" (1CLUB.FM: Cajun Fest, Chicago, IL)
WEMU-FM: "Blues, jazz and news from Ann Arbor's NPR affiilate" (WEMU Ypsilanti, MI)
  • Classic
Classic and Jazz: Radio Classic and Jazz (Paris, France)
KUAT Tucson: KUAT-FM Classical (Arizona Public Radio)
  • Jazz
CBC Jazz: Radio 2 Channel Player (Canada)
Fréquence Fusion: "La Radio Qui Fusionne Avec Tes Hits ..." (Nice, France)
  • Reggae
La Grosse Radio REGGAE: LaGrosseRadio.com (Plaisir, France)
La Yaute Reggae: "La Yaute Reggae diffuse que de son reggae..." (St Jean D'Aulps [?], France)

So far, so good! I can hardly wait to try La Yaute Celtic. I just wish iTunes would stay tuned to a station when you shut down and restart.

PABeaufaitBookmarks 03/18/2010


Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Sunday, March 14, 2010

Saturday, March 13, 2010

Thursday, March 11, 2010

PABeaufaitBookmarks 03/11/2010


Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

PABeaufaitBookmarks 03/10/2010


Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Saturday, March 06, 2010

PABeaufaitBookmarks 03/06/2010

  • 2nd page of article on Google Wave in early stage of development (2009.11.02)

    tags: Google Wave, help, searches, tags, education, tools, technology, learning, free, collaboration

    • Tags aid in searching. If a participant wants to find other waves that are tagged with “devlearn,” it may be more efficient to use that tag than to use Search.
      • There are quite a few waves that are very useful, run by users rather than by Google. Here are the ones that have become my favorites (you can find these by using Search from within Wave):


        • The Comprehensive Usage Guide to Google Wave
        • New and Previewed Wave Features – What Are You Seeing – ContentWave ( TM )
        • Useful Public Waves
        • Search Cheat Sheet
        • Google Wave Extensions (Copy)
      • About Searching


        Make good use of the Search Cheat Sheet listed above. The search syntax in Wave is a bit arcane, or at least it seems so to me. Here are the terms I have been using most often, with a short explanation of each in parentheses:


        • with:public [keyword] (Finds public waves with that keyword in them, for example with:public Mobile Learning finds public waves that have Mobile Learning in the name or in the wave. Note that this also brings back waves that contain “Mobile, Alabama” – the Cheat Sheet explains the search operators that Wave uses, which are as arcane as the rest of the syntax.)
        • in:inbox (shows all the waves you are listening to)
        • by:me (all the waves I have contributed to)
        • by:[WAVid] (all the waves this person has contributed to)
  • tags: no_tag

    • When you first get your Wave account, any contacts in your Gmail address book who also have Wave accounts will automatically appear in your Contacts panel. (You must have a Gmail account to use Wave, by the way.) You can also add Wave users to your Contacts by searching for them, or by opening the “Manage Contacts” link and typing their WavID.
    • if you open the Inbox link in the Navigation panel, any and all waves in it will appear in the Search panel. The same is true if you open, for example, one of your folders.
    • The ellipsis at the end of the ribbon opens up a drop-down menu of other functions, such as moving a wave to a different Folder.

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Friday, March 05, 2010

PABeaufaitBookmarks 03/05/2010


Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Thursday, March 04, 2010

100 Words Every High School Graduate Should Know published by Houghton Mifflin Company

100 Words Every High School Graduate Should Know published by Houghton Mifflin Company

4th edition list from the Editors of American Heritage Dictionaries mentioned in a program on NPR: 100 Key Words (2002.11.17 [+ audio]).


PABeaufaitBookmarks 03/04/2010


Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

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