Weekly roundup #2

What we don't know about sunscreens.  A fascinating discussion of the tradeoff between slathering on active chemicals and getting roasted by the sun.  Lesser of two evils?  Note: the one thing we know for sure is don't use sunscreens with Vitamin A.

If you think property taxes are high, start thinking about how much of those tax dollars are going to support your car.

Does the 10th amendment give the states power to nullify federal laws that are beyond the scope of the constitution?  Eric Black asks whether lawsuits to the Supreme Court would be more appropriate than threats of nullification.

Weekly roundup

• Increased focus on tests means lest time for physical education in schools: read more
• There's no scientific evidence that special running shoes provide any benefit: read more
• Pork-filled Counter-Islamic Bomb Device: would it ruin a suicide bomber's day to be covered in pork (unclean) when they detonate their device?  read more
• Financial Reform: what's in it and how does it work?  read more

Dear Apple,

I got your iPhone 4 after wanting an iPhone for a long time.  It's nice.  I like the apps, the internets, and the camera.  However, I think you should call it an iPuter, because the phone part blows.

If I hold it with no case, the amazing AT&T bar thief takes all my bars.  No calls.

If I have the case on, but the network is congested, I get voicemail notifications several hours after the call (and the phone never rang).  Text messages come through in clumps when you have a spare moment.  Sometimes the phone has to be reset to be a phone (Hello, are you Windows?)

If I have the case on and the phone to my ear in my dining room and a plane flies over, the call dies. 

And although my phone does 100,000 more things than my Motorola RAZR on the Sprint network, I never dropped a call with the RAZR.  Ever.  I've dropped at least 10 calls in 1 month oh this shiny piece of industrial design. 

Really, it's sad.  And I hope it's AT&T's fault, because it's more fun to blame the phone company than someone who knows how to advertise cool.

Was this giving a fish or teaching to fish?

TreeHugger: "Circle of Blue writes, 'A technology once heralded as a simple solution to Africa's drinking water problem now stands as a broken, unused and poorly planned reminder of international water aid's latest misstep.'"

You may have read about the PlayPump a couple years ago, an innovative concept where kids playing on a playground merry-go-round would pump water for parched African villages. Sadly, it never worked as promised. Like so many clever concepts to help the developing world, this one lacked sufficient follow-through.

Read more...

John McCain: climate coward

NYTimes.com: "There was a time when Mr. McCain was considered a friend of the environment. Back in 2003 he burnished his maverick image by co-sponsoring legislation that would have created a cap-and-trade system for greenhouse gas emissions. He reaffirmed support for such a system during his presidential campaign, and things might look very different now if he had continued to back climate action once his opponent was in the White House. But he didn’t — and it’s hard to see his switch as anything other than the act of a man willing to sacrifice his principles, and humanity’s future, for the sake of a few years added to his political career."

We’re Gonna Be Sorry

Congress gave up on climate change legislation last week, and I think Tom Friedman's summary expresses my sentiments well.

NYTimes.com: "The last word goes to the contrarian hedge fund manager Jeremy Grantham, who in his July letter to investors, noted: “Conspiracy theorists claim to believe that global warming is a carefully constructed hoax driven by scientists desperate for ... what? Being needled by nonscientific newspaper reports, by blogs and by right-wing politicians and think tanks? I have a much simpler but plausible ‘conspiracy theory’: the fossil energy companies, driven by the need to protect hundreds of billions of dollars of profits, encourage obfuscation of the inconvenient scientific results. I, for one, admire them for their P.R. skills, while wondering, as always: “Have they no grandchildren?”"

Are conservatives allowed to ride bikes?

MinnPost - Mitch Berg

An entertaining read.

Post-vacation catch-all

• The call for government fiscal austerity sounds a lot like the Iraq War run-up, with about the same level of factual integrity.
• Lies and the lying liars who tell them, 50th edition.
• Our beaker is boiling - glacial melting is happening at a non-glacial pace, but we still dither on climate change policy.
• BP finally halts the massive gulf oil spill; get a good understanding of the spill with NRDC's excellent interactive graphic (hat tip, Treehugger)
• Minnesota Governor Pawlenty tries to manufacture another Franken-Coleman election myth. but Minnpost's Jay Weiner has the facts. (remember his disappearing ballots riff in 2009?).
• Have a kid?  I'm sure you have many memories of when you found out you were pregnant, but did you save your pee test in a remembrance bag?  Ugh.
• Look for a nonprofit site to get your health information if you like accuracy and full disclosure.  Here's a list of certified sites that have been reviewed by the Health On the Net Foundation.
• Be skeptical of what you hear, because your brain likes facts that reinforce your beliefs, rather than developing beliefs based on facts.
• Speaking of myths, here are a few kitchen myths (hat tip to Lifehacker)
• Baking soda is poor at absorbing odors (that orange box in the fridge was a waste!)
• Alcohol boils off when used in cooking

Tom Emmer is an idiot

His first idea for transforming Minnesota government is the completely politically safe proposal to cut legislator pay and per diems. 

First of all, this will make no difference in the budget.  Even a 10% cut (steep by any standard) would save maybe $1 million in a budget of over $15 billion (0.1%).

Emmer thinks that the salary and benefits for legislators create "career politicians," a vague term that seems to imply he would prefer laws to come from amateurs rather than professionals. 

Not to mention, I doubt there are many legislators in it for the pay.

Legislators make $35,000 a year for "part-time" work that includes three months of full time labor (January-March) and two months of 18-hour days (April-May) followed by district meetings, fundraising, and campaign work. 

I'll be waiting to hear his next amazing proposal for transforming government with bated breath.

NASA Releases Time-Lapse Video of Gulf Oil Spill : TreeHugger

TreeHugger

The most striking thing about this video to me is not the oil spill, which is horrific, but the dead zone in the Mississippi river delta from agricultural runoff. Farmland spills nutrients and chemicals into the Gulf like this every year. And the dead zone looks a lot bigger than the spill.

Is your iPhone killing Congolese children?

Op-Ed Columnist:

A fascinating column on the minerals that go into modern electronics and smartphones and how they cause civil strife in exporting nations (like blood diamonds).

Kristof talks about pressure building on manufacturers to ensure that their minerals are not coming from conflict areas, but this strikes me as insufficient. Much like the U.S. getting off Middle East oil will only encourage other countries to stick with them (lower prices!), action solely by U.S. manufacturers would be insufficient. Wouldn't sanctions organized at the U.N. level be more effective? We need to stop everyone from buying, not just American tech companies.

I'm not really familiar with the historical consensus on South Africa, but from what I remember divestment was a good part of the strategy for putting pressure on the South African government to end apartheid. In that case, perhaps what Kristof suggests is enough. But I'm not convinced.

Spongebob sells Snickers

Study: Cartoon characters attract kids to junk food - CNN.com: "In the study, which is published this week in the journal Pediatrics, Roberto and her colleagues presented 40 children ages 4 to 6 with paired samples of graham crackers, gummy fruit snacks, and baby carrots. Each pair of sample foods was identical down to the clear packaging, except that one of the packages had a sticker of Shrek, Dora the Explorer, or Scooby Doo on it.

Between 50 percent and 55 percent of the children said that the food with the sticker on it tasted better than the same food in the plain package. (The percentage varied with each food.) And between 73 percent and 85 percent selected the food in the character packaging as the one they'd prefer to eat as a snack."

Rational parenting

Schneier on Security: "Here are the facts: About 61 children each year choke to death on food, or one in a million. Of them, 17 percent—or about 10—choke on franks. So now we are talking 1 in 6 million. This is still tragic; the death of any child is. But to call it 'high-risk' means we would have to call pretty much all of life 'high-risk.' Especially getting in a car! About 1,300 kids younger than 14 die each year as car passengers, compared with 10 a year from hot dogs."

Maybe the American Academy of Pediatrics is overreacting in its call for large-type warning labels on the foods that kids most commonly choke on...

Why don't women buy at Best Buy?

MinnPost: "when it comes to chains, there seems to be a weird gender split. While men go to Best Buy, women go to Target. Burger King is for men; Wendy's is for women. Wal-Mart refers to its generic customer as 'she.'"

Fascinating look at how businesses learn to cater to the opposite gender, and how it can pay off.

Context for terrorism

Schneier on Security: Fear in a Political Ad: "Yes, terrorists kill -- about as often as home appliances."

We've met the enemy and he is us

President Obama is addressing the nation about the oil spill on Tuesday.  I hope what he says will sound something like this.

Another food post: salt, snake oil and ketchup

Salt, from NY Times (via Minnpost):

Since processed foods account for most of the salt in the American diet, national health officials, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg of New York and Michelle Obama are urging food companies to greatly reduce their use of salt. Last month, the Institute of Medicine went further, urging the government to force companies to do so.

But the industry is working overtly and behind the scenes to fend off these attacks, using a shifting set of tactics that have defeated similar efforts for 30 years, records and interviews show. Industry insiders call the strategy “delay and divert” and say companies have a powerful incentive to fight back: they crave salt as a low-cost way to create tastes and textures. Doing without it risks losing customers, and replacing it with more expensive ingredients risks losing profits.

Why can't the processed food companies cut back? 

Companies argued that foods already low in sugar and fat would not sell with less salt.

Read more for a description of a Cheez-It sans salt, and you may believe them.

On "Snake Oil", From Minnpost:

In essence, say [Forbes] reporters Matthew Herper and Rebecca Ruiz, these foods are “masquerading as drugs”:

The world's biggest food companies are stuffing ostensibly beneficial bacteria, omega-3 fatty acids and other additives into packaged foods. They are funding clinical research in order to justify health claims — often deliberately vague — that blur the line between nutrition and medicine. The foods promise to boost immunity, protect your heart and digestive system or help you sleep. In some cases, like the ProBugs kefir, manufacturers aren't adding new ingredients but merely repackaging old foods with bold new health claims.

Finally, for those feeling proactive, a recipe to make your own ketchup, sans salt if you desire, and without high fructose corn syrup.

Banks renege on agreement to buy back bad loans

Banks got loan coverage from government-backed Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac as they went out offering subprime loans.  They signed agreements that they would buy the loans back if they failed to "meet certain standards relating to borrower incomes, job status or assets."

Just kidding!

Freddie also said that as of the end of March, 34 percent of its buyback requests had been outstanding for 90 days or more. Three months earlier, that figure was 30 percent. That increase suggests a greater reluctance among banks to respond to Freddie’s demands.

And who's left holding the bag as bank profits are rising?

taxpayers are the ones holding the bag when institutions try to avoid losses by refusing to buy back problem loans they have sold to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the mortgage finance giants that are wards of the state.

What your email address says about your computer skills

The inanity of page counts

When debating actual legislation, there's one sure-fire attack to levy at your opponents: "your legislation is longer than [insert complex sounding document]." A good recent example is the Facebook privacy policy, which was accused of being longer than the U.S. Constitution. This is a particularly inane comparison, because the trim 4,400 words in the U.S. Constitution make it the shortest of any country's.

The recent conversation over energy legislation is a good example, and I am ashamed to say that I've been guilty of it with regard to the House Waxman-Markey climate legislation. But here's a great refutation of that point, from a Grist chat with energy analyst Trevor Houser:

"Our litmus test for legislation that will fundamentally alter the behavior of the U.S. energy sector -- a $2.2 trillion part of the U.S. economy -- for the next 40 years is whether or not it can be kept under 100 pages?"

Sometimes wanting simple is just being simple. Brilliant.