Category Archives: Economics

Business, Economics, Media Criticism, Political Commentary, Science And Society, Social Commentary, Technology and Society

More On Toxic Greenery

6 Comments

Really, someone should use this data to get rid of the idiotic bans on plastic bags.

Warning of disease may seem like an over-the-top scare tactic, but research suggests there’s more than anecdote behind this industry talking point. In a 2011 study, four researchers examined reusable bags in California and Arizona and found that 51 percent of them contained coliform bacteria. The problem appears to be the habits of the reusers. Seventy-five percent said they keep meat and vegetables in the same bag. When bags were stored in hot car trunks for two hours, the bacteria grew tenfold.

That study also found, happily, that washing the bags eliminated 99.9 percent of the bacteria. It undercut even that good news, though, by finding that 97 percent of people reported that they never wash their bags.

They’ll take my plastic bags away from my cold, dead fingers.

[Update late morning]

The San Francisco bag ban kills five people a year.

If we could save just one child’s life…

Economics, Media Criticism, Political Commentary, Space, Technology and Society

Asteroid Missions

22 Comments

Are they really harder than landing on Mars?

Sorry, but with all respect, that’s nuts. We know all we need to know about asteroids to plan a mission to them, including the space radiation environment. All you need to do is pick one. And landing on Mars is hard.

That’s not to say that I think that NASA should be doing an asteroid mission, of course. And especially it shouldn’t as long as it continues to spread the nonsense that it needs the SLS/Orion for it.

[Update a while later]

I think that this is mostly FUD from people who don’t want to do an asteroid mission.