Eideard

Sprinkle w/sea salt 1/2 hour before grilling, serve with a touch of lemon and parsley

Cut back on tuna and salmon and load your plate instead with herring and sardines if you want to help save the world’s fish. So says the scientist who led the most comprehensive analysis ever carried out of fish stocks in the world’s oceans and how they have changed over the past century.

The study by Villy Christensen of the University of British Columbia’s Fisheries Centre confirmed some previous indications that populations of predator fish at the top of the food chain, such as cod, tuna and groupers, have suffered huge declines, shrinking by around two-thirds in the past 100 years. More than half that decline occurred in the past 40 years.

Christensen found that the total stock of “forage fish”, such as sardines, anchovy and capelin, has more than doubled over the past century. These are fish that are normally eaten by the top predators. “You remove the predator, you get more prey fish,” said Christensen. “That has not been demonstrated before because people don’t measure the number, they don’t go out and count them…”

Christensen urged consumers to eat more of the burgeoning population of forager fish such as sardines and anchovies, while reducing their intake of top predators, in order to re-balance the world’s fish species…

The rise in wild forage fish populations has knock-on effects on marine ecosystems. These fish eat more of the zooplankton in the oceans, which means that the next stage down the food chain – the plant plankton normally consumed by the zooplankton – blooms. “You get into a situation where you get a green soup, you get anaerobic conditions [low oxygen levels]. There are clear examples in the Black Sea,” said Christensen…

“We need to cut back fishing efforts,” said Christensen. “Society needs to decide what we want with the ocean – do we want to turn it into a farm? Or do we want to have something that is more of a natural ecosystem?”

Leave the solution solely in the hands of politicians and profiteers and there will be little or nothing of value accomplished. Like every other issue of environment and ecology, it will take an educated public responding to knowledge – berating the lazy and opportunist sluggos elected to office by a citizenry even lazier about thoughtful intellectual pursuits.

You have an alternative, of course. Continue to rely upon the elected species who support every war and couldn’t agree more with the need for Christian morality to run Congress. The same people who have put off the Age of Reason in America for over a century.

North Dakota oil operator flaring natural gas

Across western North Dakota, hundreds of fires rise above fields of wheat and sunflowers and bales of hay. At night, they illuminate the prairie skies like giant fireflies.

They are not wildfires caused by lightning strikes or other acts of nature, but the deliberate burning of natural gas by oil companies rushing to extract oil from the Bakken shale field and take advantage of the high price of crude. The gas bubbles up alongside the far more valuable oil, and with less economic incentive to capture it, the drillers treat the gas as waste and simply burn it.

Every day, more than 100 million cubic feet of natural gas is flared this way — enough energy to heat half a million homes for a day.

The flared gas also spews at least two million tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere every year, as much as 384,000 cars or a medium-size coal-fired power plant would emit, alarming some environmentalists.

All told, 30 percent of the natural gas produced in North Dakota is burned as waste. No other major domestic oil field currently flares close to that much, though the practice is still common in countries like Russia, Nigeria and Iran…

“North Dakota is not as bad as Kazakhstan, but this is not what you would expect a civilized, efficient society to do: to flare off a perfectly good product just because it’s expensive to bring to market,” said Michael E. Webber, associate director of the Center for International Energy and Environmental Policy at the University of Texas at Austin…

Flaring – halted years ago – is a step backward for our domestic energy industry. Most oil and gas fields in the United States have well-developed facilities to gather and process gas as a result of conservation movements, environmental activism – and the days when Congress was pressed into caring about the health of our nation.

Those cares were sent packing by Bush the Little, refused re-entry permits by today’s Republicans and the Kool Aid Party.

A high-level international commission declared the global “war on drugs” a failure and urged nations to consider legalizing cannabis and other drugs to undermine organized crime and protect their citizens’ health.

The Global Commission on Drug Policy called for a new approach to reducing drug abuse to replace the current strategy of strictly criminalizing drugs and incarcerating drug users while battling criminal cartels that control the drug trade…

The study urges “experimentation by governments with models of legal regulation of drugs,” adding: “This recommendation applies especially to cannabis, but we also encourage other experiments in decriminalization and legal regulation.”

There are 250 million users of illicit drugs worldwide, with less than a 10th of them classified as dependent, and millions are involved in cultivation, production and distribution, according to U.N. estimates quoted in the report.

The study adds that decriminalization initiatives do not result in significant increases in drug use…

The commission said fundamental reforms were urgently needed in national and global drug control policies…

“Repressive efforts directed at consumers impede public health measures to reduce HIV/AIDS, overdose fatalities and other harmful consequences of drug use,” it adds.

The commission’s report adds that money spent by governments on futile efforts to reduce the supply of drugs and on jailing people on drug-related offenses could be better spent on different ways to reduce drug demand and the harm caused by drug abuse.

Not only is this report overdue, the same holds for independent action by our state and national legislators. I realize that requires overcoming a certain genetic cravenness. One would hope that a modicum of education and experience might have leaked into the shallow brainpans of our political overseers by now – and a bit of common sense might thread into their time-wasting.

The full report is available here

A former president of the Maryland State Medical Society, Dr. Sroka has practiced family medicine for 32 years in a small, red-brick building just six miles from his childhood home, treating fishing buddies, neighbors and even his elementary school principal much the way doctors have practiced medicine for centuries. He likes to chat, but with costs going up and reimbursements down, that extra time has hurt his income. So Dr. Sroka, 62, thought about retiring.

He tried to sell his once highly profitable practice. No luck. He tried giving it away. No luck.

Dr. Sroka’s fate is emblematic of a transformation in American medicine. He once provided for nearly all of his patients’ medical needs — stitching up the injured, directing care for the hospitalized and keeping vigil for the dying. But doctors like him are increasingly being replaced by teams of rotating doctors and nurses who do not know their patients nearly as well. A centuries-old intimacy between doctor and patient is being lost, and patients who visit the doctor are often kept guessing about who will appear in the white coat…

Yup. Let’s address law and healthcare legislation and ignore the number of greedy buggers whose choice to enter medicine is grounded almost exclusively on income vs. effort.

Indeed, younger doctors — half of whom are now women — are refusing to take over these small practices. They want better lifestyles, shorter work days, and weekends free of the beepers, cellphones and patient emergencies that have long defined doctors’ lives. Weighed down with debt, they want regular paychecks instead of shopkeeper risks. And even if they wanted such practices, banks — attuned to the growing uncertainties — are far less likely to lend the money needed…

Of course “fewer unnecessary tests” is also a crock as anyone who has investigated rising medical costs should know. Cripes, I’ll even include an anecdote. In a good deal of pain on a weekend, I went to a private emergency clinic. After batteries of tests including a skull X-ray they gave me painkillers and suggested I see my regular doctor on Monday. The bill to Medicare, my supplemental insurance and me was over $800.

My doctor resolved the cause as a previously unexperienced allergy – treated with OTC medication, by the way. He chuckled over the private emergency clinic as “they certainly know how to manage their profit centers”.

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Tim Geithner, Secretary of the Treasury
Daylife/AP Photo used by permission

It isn’t often that the government launches a major program that achieves its main goals at a tiny fraction of its estimated costs. That’s the story of TARP — the Troubled Assets Relief Program. Created in October 2008 at the height of the financial crisis, it helped stabilize the economy, using only $410 billion of its authorized $700 billion. And most of that will be repaid. The Congressional Budget Office, which once projected TARP’s ultimate cost at $356 billion, now says $19 billion. This could go lower…

One lesson of the financial crisis is this: When the entire financial system succumbs to panic, only the government is powerful enough to prevent a complete collapse. Panics signify the triumph of fear. TARP was part of the process by which fear was overcome. It wasn’t the only part, but it was an essential part. Without TARP, we’d be worse off today. No one can say whether unemployment would be 11 percent or 14 percent; it certainly wouldn’t be 8.9 percent.

That benefited all Americans. TARP, says Douglas Elliott of the Brookings Institution, “is the best large federal program to be despised by the public.”

The source of outrage is no secret. Bankers are blamed for the crisis and reviled. The bank bailout — TARP’s first and most important purpose — was instantly unpopular. Most Americans, says Elliott, “believe that taxpayers spent $700 billion and got nothing in return…”

… As it was, TARP invested $245 billion in banks (and about $165 billion into the other programs). The extra capital helped restore trust. Meanwhile, the Federal Reserve increased its lending; the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. guaranteed $350 billion of bank borrowings. Banks resumed dealing with each other because they regained confidence that commitments would be honored.

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Pop singer Lady Gaga has threatened to sue a specialist ice cream parlour in London for naming its breast milk ice cream “Baby Gaga,” the shop’s owner said on Wednesday.

Matt O’Connor, founder of The Icecreamists in London’s Covent Garden, said he had received a letter from Lady Gaga’s lawyers informing him that the singer planned to sue him over the name…

O’Connor denied the flamboyant singer — whose meat dress and other strange outfits have promoted her quirky image and delighted her fans — had inspired the name he chose for the dessert made from breast milk blended with Madagascan vanilla pods and lemon zest.

“It’s just the first noise a baby makes — it’s nothing to do with anyone else,” he said, adding that he was working on a response to the letter.

London’s Westminster Council briefly confiscated supplies of “Baby Gaga” ice cream last week on health concerns, but gave it the all-clear on Wednesday…

O’Connor told Reuters he was considering taking legal action against the council for reputational damage.

“They made the damaging assertion that breast milk ice cream isn’t safe,” he said, adding that it was an overreaction to the safest food in the world.

Add a lawyer into any economic or political equation and you can almost be assured of losing touch with reality.

The US treasury expects to net $312.2m on Monday when it sells the rest of its stake in Citigroup. The government holds 465.1m warrants in Citi that entitle it to purchase common shares in the banking group. The warrants, which it is auctioning, represent the remaining part of the US government’s $45bn investment in Citi during the financial crisis.

Taxpayers are expected to end up with a $12.3bn profit on the bailout, made under the troubled asset relief programme (TARP). The treasury sold its 34% stake of common shares of Citi last year.

“As we exit our investments in private companies and recover taxpayer dollars, it’s clear that the cost of the Tarp programme will be a fraction of what many had once feared during the depths of the crisis,” said Tim Massad, the treasury’s acting assistant secretary for financial stability.

The Tarp bailout is proving to be less expensive to taxpayers than first feared. The US government made $13.5bn selling its stake in General Motors. Last week the government chose four Wall Street banks to sell its stake in American Insurance Group (AIG), recipient of $180bn in bailout funds. The sale could be the largest in US history. AIG has already paid back significant chunks of the debt…

In his latest quarterly report, Neil Barofsky said “on the financial side, Tarp’s outlook has never been better. Not only did Tarp funds help head off a catastrophic financial collapse, but estimates of Tarp’s ultimate direct financial cost to the taxpayer have fallen substantially,” from $341bn in August 2009 to $25bn in November 2010.

Save a copy of this post for the next time your friendly neighborhood Tea Party nutball starts raving and ranting about how the socialist policies of the bailout were bankrupting the United States.

Of course, you’ll have to point out 14 more sources for the information on repayment and the resulting profits. There isn’t anyone in the KoolAid Party who knows what actually is happening in the world of commerce.

Coppers still searching for Davis [L] – Ortiz [R] sits in the slammer

Police arrested a suspect in an arsonist-for-hire in Titusville after they said he made a critical mistake — he left the tip of his finger at the scene of the crime.

Meanwhile, detectives are seeking the public’s help in finding the man they say was trying to pull off an insurance scam by burning down his house.

Police were called to a fire at a home on North Dixie Avenue about 11:15 a.m. Saturday. While they were investigating, police said, they discovered evidence of accelerants, leading them to determine that the fire was likely an arson.

Then, while sifting through evidence, officers got a tip — literally. They found a piece of a latex glove with the tip of a finger inside.

Police said they found their suspect at a local hospital. They matched the tip to 24-year-old Ismael Ortiz, who detectives said quickly confessed. But how did the suspect clip his tip? Detective Jessica Edens explained: Trying to flee after setting the fire, “he slammed his finger in the door,” Edens said, “and it cut the tip of his finger off.”

Police said Ortiz told detectives he was hired by a resident of the home, Samuel “Sammy” Davis. Investigators said Davis hired Ortiz to burn down the house so he could collect on a renters insurance policy…

Edens said Ortiz was arrested and booked into the Brevard County Jail.

I guess you get what you pay for – even when hiring a crook.

The dead have no voice in our politics
Daylife/Reuters Pictures used by permission

BP and its partners made a series of cost-cutting decisions that ultimately contributed to the oil spill that ravaged the Gulf of Mexico coast over the summer, the White House oil spill commission said on Wednesday. In its final report on causes of the largest offshore oil spill in U.S. history, the commission said BP and its collaborators on the doomed Macondo well had lacked a system to ensure their actions were safe.

“Whether purposeful or not, many of the decisions that BP, Halliburton, and Transocean made that increased the risk of the Macondo blowout clearly saved those companies significant time (and money),” the report said.

Created by President Barack Obama in the midst of the BP spill, the panel is the first government-sanctioned group to wrap up its probe of the causes of the drilling disaster…

Although the commission lacks authority to establish policy or punish companies, its conclusions could have a bearing on future criminal and civil cases relating to the spill…

The commission’s report ultimately blamed management failures for the April 20 explosion that ruptured the Macondo well and unleased millions of barrels of oil into the Gulf.

The commission also concluded the Gulf spill was not an isolated incident caused by “rogue industry or government officials”.

“The root causes are systemic and, absent significant reform in both industry practices and government policies, might well recur,” the report said.

The report offers no surprises. Neither will the responses, I fear.

We wil get to watch Congress in action as both sides work at avoiding doing anything of importance.

Daylife/Getty Images used by permission

The US Treasury has sold its remaining stake in Citigroup, in a deal which it says will make a $12 billion profit on its overall investment.

Citigroup was one of the worst victims of the financial crisis, and the US government stepped in with $45 billion of bail-out cash in 2008 and 2009. The money was part of the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP).

On Monday, the government sold off its remaining shares in the bank for $4.35 each.

“By selling all the remaining Citigroup shares today, we had an opportunity to lock in substantial profits for the taxpayer,” said Tim Massad, acting assistant secretary for financial stability.

“We have advanced our goals of recovering Tarp funds, protecting the taxpayer and getting the government out of the business of owning stakes in private companies,” Mr. Massad said in a statement…

The US government is in line for further earnings from Citi through the sale of warrants and preferred securities it holds.

In parallel to Citi paying off its debts, carmaker General Motors is likewise shedding itself of government control.

And the US Treasury is expected to begin selling off its stake in insurance giant AIG next year.

It is now estimated that the cost of the Troubled Asset Relief Program will cost the US taxpayer $25 billion, much less than earlier estimates.

$25 billion = the approximate cost of 2 months of our glorious wars for freedom and democracy in the Middle East.

All hail the conquering heroes. All hail Caesar!