Campanastan

The Carbon Footprint of Email Spam Report 2009

Boy, this is a real eye-opener. I had no idea spam used so much energy.

Read the report from McAfee, or download here:

Download Spam_carbon_footprint_2009

Key findings:

An estimated worldwide total of 62 trillion spam emails were sent in 2008

•       Globally, annual spam energy use totals 33 billion kilowatt-hours (KWh), or 33 terawatt hours (TWh). That’s equivalent to the electricity used in 2.4 million homes in the United States, with the same GHG emissions as 3.1 million passenger cars using two billion United States gallons of gasoline

•       Spam filtering saves 135 TWh of electricity per year. That’s like taking 13 million cars off the road

•       If every inbox were protected by a state-of-the-art spam filter, organizations and individuals could reduce today’s spam energy by approximately 75 percent or 25 TWh per year. That’s equivalent to taking 2.3 million cars off the road

•       The average GHG emission associated with a single spam message is 0.3 grams of CO2. That’s like driving three feet (one meter) in equivalent emissions, but when multiplied by the annual volume of spam, it’s like driving around the Earth 1.6 million times

•       A year’s email at a typical medium-size business uses 50,000 KWh; more than one fifth of that annual use can be associated with spam

•       Filtering spam is beneficial, but fighting spam at the source is even better. When McColo, a major source of online spam, was taken offline in late 2008, the energy saved in the ensuing lull — before spammers rebuilt their sending capacity — equated to taking 2.2 million cars off the road

•       Much of the energy consumption associated with spam (80 percent) comes from end-users deleting spam and searching for legitimate email (false positives). Spam filtering accounts for just 16 percent of spamrelated energy use

Thanks to Elaine Hebard for sending this my way.

“The problem with communication…is the illusion that it has been accomplished.” – George Bernard Shaw

Boise State Gives a Christmas Present to the Big Boys; Now, It's TCU's Turn

The Boise State University Broncos, threatening to spoil the BCS party by crashing the college football title game with a perfect season, saw their hopes dissipate last night with a 34-31 overtime loss to the University of Nevada-Reno Wolf Pack.

The loss was especially bitter, as BSU had two chances to win but missed field goals on both occasions. Entering the game the Broncos were rated #4 (10-0) in the BCS rankings; Nevada, no slouch itself, was ranked #19 (10-1). I have to admit I picked Nevada for sentimental reasons but was hoping BSU could pull it out.

College football moguls, TV networks,  and their sportscaster shills are breathing more easily today, knowing that their college football championship won't be 'tainted' by the likes of Boise State but will likely go to 'legitimate'  big-time football schools, such as the University of Nike...ooops...University of Oregon (#1) and Auburn University (#2). 

The worst BCS nightmare was to have both Boise State and TCU finish undefeated, with each claiming the right to a title shot. The folks in the Phoenix area are no doubt relieved as well, since  the specter of  BSU and TCU fans descending upon their fair metropolis (Glendale, actually) was viewed by some as the equaivalent of Ma and Pa Kettle crashing a White House dinner party. Recall the 'C' in TCU stands for 'Christian' (tightwads, no partying) and Boise, well...for God's sake, that's in Idaho, whose state motto is Famous Potatoes! Far better to have football-crazed Auburn fans (bourbon and beer, y'all) and upscale Oregon fans (pinot noir, if you please, and maybe a joint, but don't spill anything on my Nike spoortwear) whooping it up.

It's also appropriate that the game will be played in the University of Phoenix Stadium - a school that does not have a football team and it is a profit-making university. After all, the BCS is all about money. Oh, the irony of it all!

Now, the football gurus just have to hope that TCU, currently #3 and 11-0, stumbles today. But I doubt that will happen; they play hapless New Mexico, winnner of one game (1-10) this year. [Note: TCU didn't cooperate, thumping UNM 66-17.]

But it would be great to see Oregon and Auburn take a tumble as well and throw a spanner into the works.

Here is an NPR interview with BSU President Robert Kustra.

"College football is a sport that bears the same relation to education that bullfighting does to agriculture."  ~Elbert Hubbard

"Watching football is like watching pornography.  There's plenty of action, and I can't take my eyes off it, but when it's over, I wonder why the hell I spent an afternoon doing it."  ~Luke Salisbury

Happy Thanksgiving from Campanastan and a Modest Request

Happy Thanksgiving from Campanastan!

I have many things for which to be thankful. I have been blessed with a wonderful spouse, Mary Frances, and an easy life. I make a good living doing something I love, surrounded by bright, engaged students and extraordinary colleagues. I don't have to worry about some bozo tinhorn dictator running my country. And I have some remarkable friends and an amazing older sister, not to mention my niece.

Two of things for which I am thankful are clean, safe drinking water from my tap and excellent wastewater treatment (thanks to the City of Corvallis). It's a gift most of us take for granted and many in the world can only dream about.

As you enjoy Thanksgiving dinner, think about clean water and sanitation and consider this message from John Oldfield at Water Advocates; your help is needed to ensure that more obtain this gift.

Dear friends of safe drinking water and sanitation,

 

During this time of year when we have so much to be thankful for, we ask for ten minutes of your time over the next few days to encourage the US Congress to support the Water for the World Act. This legislation which has already passed the Senate by unanimous consent will help those without safe drinking water and sanitation around the developing world.

 

Now, during the lame duck session, is the most important time to contact your member of the House of Representatives to ask him or her to pass the Water for the World Act.

 

This lifesaving legislation would go a long way toward ending the diseases caused by the lack of access to safe drinking water and sanitation which constitute the world's largest public health crisis. It would also give the United States an important leadership role in providing access to water, sanitation and hygiene for millions of the world's poorest people.

 

The ask is simple: customize the draft letter below with your personal story about how water is important to you and/or your organization, put the letter on your letterhead, and fax it to as many members of Congress as possible. *** For those of you in Arkansas, California, Indiana, Maryland, Nebraska, New Jersey, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, Washington (state), please contact John Oldfield at [email protected] for additional details. ***

 

All House offices can be contacted through 202-225-3121, or through www.house.gov. We have found that faxing your letter to the office in Washington, DC is most effective at getting the message through.

 

For further information on the Water for the World Act please visit:

• Water Advocates Press Release on Senate Passage of the Water for the World Act
• PDF of the Water For the World Act
• Educational video about the Water for the World Act

Thank you all for your assistance with this important piece of legislation. The draft letter that we are asking you to customize and fax to Congress is below.

 

Best wishes from everyone at Water Advocates for a Happy Thanksgiving! :)

__

Here's the sample letter: 

Dear [House Member]:

 

[insert quick personal intro/story about your or your organization’s interest/activity in safe drinking water and sanitation in developing countries]

 

After extensive discussions with policymakers of both parties, the Water for the World Act was passed in the Senate by unanimous consent. The House is now considering whether to bring a streamlined version of the legislation to the Floor. In sum, the Water for the World Act will almost double the effectiveness of the Water for the Poor Act of 2005 -- in terms of lives saved and illness prevented by the availability of clean drinking water and sanitation -- with no  additional federal funds. By reformulating and modernizing the way US water aid is focused, the bill will meet the safe drinking water and sanitation needs of 50 million people over the next six years, enhance the capacity of USAID and the State Department to utilize water more effectively and sustainably in their development and diplomacy efforts, leverage an additional 25% in non-federal funds to reach more people, and ensure that our limited aid resources are directed toward  the areas of greatest need and greatest impact, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa, Asia, and Latin America.

 

House passage of the Water for the World Act will complement what I and many other US civic and faith groups, foundations, corporations, and water nonprofits are doing to respond to this vital challenge. If you agree, please contact the House Foreign Affairs Committee to express your support for this bipartisan, level-funded authorization that will enable the United States to improve the health of millions of people -- chiefly women and children -- worldwide, and to stabilize regions threatened by water shortage and disease.

 

Thank you for your attention to this important matter.

 

[personal close]

 

Sincerely,

“Thanksgiving Day comes, by statute, once a year; to the honest person it comes as frequently as the heart of gratitude will allow.” -- Edward Sandford Martin

Was 'Sunny' Inspired by JFK's Assassination?

Hard to believe that 47 years have lapsed since JFK was assassinated.

I was a high-school sophomore sitting in Mr. Brady's geometry class when the news came over the PA system. Nothing but stunned silence; not a single person fidgeting. Mr. Brady slowly paced in front of the classroom. I thought I noticed a tear, an aberration given his normally stern countenance.

Bobby Hebb's song  Sunny was allegedlyinspired by JFK's murder and that of Hebb's brother Harold, who was killed that same day. Hebb denied that the events were directly responsible for his song, one of the most popular ever recorded and one of my favorites.

 

I think I will continue to believe the urban legend. It's somehow very comforting.

"All my intentions were just to think of happier times – basically looking for a brighter day – because times were at a low tide." -- Bobby Hebb (1938-2010)

Nephew Warren Thanks Uncle Sam for Saving Our Butts; Did He Dis Obama?

Gazillionaire Warren Buffet recently published a letter in the New York Times thanking Uncle   Sam for preventing a financial crisis by investing taxpayers' money to stanch the economic bleeding.

“Well, Uncle Sam, you delivered. People will second-guess your specific decisions; you can always count on that. But just as there is a fog of war, there is a fog of panic — and, overall, your actions were remarkably effective….[I]n this extraordinary emergency, you came through — and the world would look far different now if you had not.”

But did he dis President Obama by failing to mention him along with the other government officials (Paulson, Bernanke, Geithner,  Bair) he thanked? Heck, he even gave a shout-out to Dubya!

Shira Ovide asks that question in the Wall Street Journal.

Anyway, I am glad someone like Warren Buffet gave props to the Federal government and its taxpayers. Thanks, Warren.

I hope the literate Tea Partiers read his letter.

And no, he's not Jimmy's father.

Looks like Buffet's mother shared a trait with mine.

"My mother told me to send thank-you notes promptly. I’ve been remiss." -- Warren Buffet

The Real Reason Republicans Tried to Cut Funding for NPR? Rap Video from Corvallis

Here you go....a link is here.

Those old white guys couldn't handle this video - except for me - I'm an NPR junkie.

The creators/performers are from Corvallis: Adam Cole and Jenna Sullivan.

   

"When NPR executives made the decision to unfairly terminate Juan Williams and to then disparage him afterward, the bias of their organization was exposed," --- House Minority Whip Eric Cantor and Doug Lamborn

Jonathan Mann Doesn't Like TSA

Jonathan Mann doesn't like the TSA. Here's the link and his video is below. Who'd a-thunk it?

"It turns out the TSA didn’t destroy all of the naked images. I’m excited about the coffee table book, just in time for Christmas." -- Paula Poundstone

Forget Climate Change - Will God Save Us From Rep. John Shimkus?

Campanastan's Philosopher-in-Residence Eric Fitch sent me a link to a story from the Toronto Star about a U.S. Congressman,  Rep. John Shimkus (R-IL). The Congressman, an evangelical Christian, is convinced that God will save us from climate change and global warming so we need not do anything about these problems.

Here is Cathal Kelly's story:

U.S. Representative John Shimkus, possible future chairman of the Congressional committee that deals with energy and its attendant environmental concerns, believes that climate change should not concern us since God has already promised not to destroy the Earth.

Shimkus already serves on the committee. During a hearing in 2009, he dismissed the dangers of climate change and the warnings of the scientific community by quoting the Bible.

First, he noted God’s post-Flood promise to Noah in Genesis 8:21-22.

“Never again will I curse the ground because of man, even though all inclinations of his heart are evil from childhood and never again will I destroy all living creatures as I have done.

“As long as the earth endures, seed time and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, will never cease.”

Forgive me - I'm not a Biblical scholar, but I see nothing in that passage that says that God has promised to protect us from climate change/global warming. We can still have Earth, albeit one a lot hotter than it is now. But Earth will still be there, along with humans, night, day, summer, winter, plants, animals, etc.  Maybe Rep. Shimkus has a direct line to the Almighty.

But Shimkus' statement gets to a more troubling issue: that of using Biblical quotes, passages from the Koran, etc., to set national policy, especially science and environmental policy.

My Biblical knowledge is sparse but I remember some lessons from Brother Doyle's sophomore Biblical studies class many years ago: by judiciously selecting quotes and taking them out of context, you can justify Biblical support for practices most of us consider morally repugnant. He then proceeded to list a bunch of things the Bible 'supported': slavery, abuse of women, segregation, and a host of other unpleasant things.  

Ooops - I forgot that Shimkus used another quote. From the story:

Then he quoted Matthew 24:31.

“And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds from one end of the heavens to the other.”

“The Earth will end only when God declares it’s time to be over. Man will not destroy this Earth. This Earth will not be destroyed by a Flood,” Shimkus asserted. “I do believe that God’s word is infallible, unchanging, perfect.”

The story ends with this:

On Tuesday, Shimkus sent a letter to his colleagues burnishing his credentials by saying he is “uniquely qualified among a group of talented contenders to lead the Energy and Commerce Committee.”

May God save us from the likes of Rep. John Shimkus.

 "Nature abhors a moron." -- Campanastan 15:1

"I can do all things through him who strengthens me." --Philippians 4:13

Amid the Chaos of Kabul, Skateistan Flourishes

Via Bel Symington: Skateistan: To Live and Skate Kabul. It's a wonderful little documentary about skateboarders and a skatepark in Kabul.

You will need Adobe Flash Player 10 to view the video.

Skateistan: To Live and Skate Kabul
By Orlando von Einsiedel 

Skateistan: To Live And Skate Kabul is a beautifully shot film that follows the lives of a group of young skateboarders in Afghanistan. Operating against the backdrop of war and bleak prospects, the Skateistan charity project is the world’s first co-educational skateboarding school, where a team of international volunteers work with girls and boys between the ages of 5 and 17, an age group largely untouched by other aid programmes. 

 

 

"Ask the truth from a child." -- Afghan proverb

Nicaragua Dice a Costa Rica: 'Lo Siento Mucho; Google Maps Me Obligó a Hacerlo'

Rough translation of the title: Nicaragua to Costa Rica: 'I'm very sorry; Google Maps made me do it.'

Seems like Nicaragua's recent 'invasion' of Costa Rica is being blamed on Google Maps, which had the border wrong. Bing Maps apparently has the border correct, although its map is being questioned as well.

Google says the border has been corrected on Google Maps.

Read the original story, part of which is below.

 

A Nicaraguan military commander, relying on Google Maps, moved troops into an area near San Juan Lake along the border between his country and Costa Rica. The troops are accused of setting up camp there, taking down a Costa Rican flag and raising the Nicaraguan flag, doing work to clean up a nearby river, and dumping the sediment in Costa Rican territory.  

La Nacion — the largest newspaper in Costa Rica — says the Nicaraguan commander, Eden Pastora, used Google Maps to “justify” the incursion even though the official maps used by both countries indicate the territory belongs to Costa Rica. Pastora blames Google Maps in the paper.

It now appears that Pastora may have invaded Costa Rican territory before looking at Google Maps and is using Google Maps as a scapegoat after the fact.

To me, it looks like Pastora has too much time on his hands and needs to be given something constructive to do. For starters, take away his Internet access.

And now we can anticipate the near future when invasions will be launched and wars started because of crappy maps on the Internet.

Lord, deliver us!

"It takes two to make a quarrel but only one to end it." -- Nicaraguan proverb

The News Circle: Fake News About Joe Biden Becomes Real News for NYT

Well, we've now come full circle: fakes news has become real news.

The New York Times reports that parodies of Vice President Joe Biden - such as this picture of Biden purportedly washing his Trans Am in the White House driveway - have become a veritable gold mine for The Onion.

What's interesting is that The Onion's approach flies in the face of previous satirical political targets.

Political satire typically seizes on a public official’s foibles or flaws and exaggerates them — Gerald R. Ford’s clumsiness, Bill Clinton’s fast-food cravings, George W. Bush’s malapropisms, for example. Turning the craft on its head, writers at The Onion have created a caricature of the vice president that is entirely incongruous with his public image. Of all Mr. Biden’s imperfections, being a womanizer and a drunk are not on the list. In fact, he does not drink and has been, by all accounts, a devoted husband and family man for more than 30 years.

The Onion’s portrayals of Mr. Biden began as traditional vice president jokes (“Biden Pardons Single Yam in Vice-Presidential Thanksgiving Ritual”) but writers there had an epiphany last year when they discovered that tweaking their caricature of the vice president into someone virtually unrecognizable from his public persona — “Biden To Cool His Heels in Mexico For a While,” read one headline — was comic gold.

The result has been endless fodder for Biden jokes — too many, in fact, for The Onion to publish. So  at a time when no major news media outlet has a reporter dedicated solely to covering the vice president, writers at The Onion are generating so many story ideas about Mr. Biden that editors have to turn them down.

“We have a backlog of Biden jokes,” said Will Tracy, The Onion’s associate editor. One idea Mr. Tracy said he had to nix: a spread by the vice president in Playgirl inspired by Burt Reynolds, whose nude pose for Cosmopolitan in 1972 on a bearskin rug became an emblem of 1970s hedonism.

“We decided it was almost too big time for him,” Mr. Tracy said. “We like it better when Joe Biden is doing very small-time stuff, like getting kicked out of Dave & Buster’s, not appearing on the cover of a major national magazine.”

Good story with lots of links to funny Biden stories.

And Biden apparently is a big fan.

You go, Joe!

"Uh, uh, Chuck Graham, state senator, is here. Stand up, Chuck, let ‘em see you. Oh, God love you. What am I talking about." -- Joe Biden, to wheelchair-bound Missouri state senator, Charles Graham, 9 September 2008.

Chris Hedges Laments The 'Death Of The Liberal Class'

You are probably thinking this post has something to do with the results of the recent election. Actually, it doesn't, but it is the title of the new book from journalist Chris Hedges. He spoke about it on NPR's 'Talk of the Nation' yesterday; read the story here.

So what is the book's subject? Try this:

From organizing workers to preventing war to making the economy more  green, journalist Chris Hedges argues that, for decades, liberals have surrendered the good fights to corporations and ruling powers.

In his new book, Death of the Liberal Class, Hedges slams five specific groups and institutions — the Democratic Party, churches, unions, the media and academia — for failing Americans and allowing for the creation of a "permanent underclass."

Hedges says that, for motives ranging from self-preservation to careerism, the "liberal establishment" purged radicals from its own ranks and, as a result, lost its checks on capitalism and corporate power.

Strong words! Hedges posits that the the increasingly disaffected working and middle classes may resort to violence.

A recent trip to Camden, NJ, the poorest city (per capita beais) in the USA, produced this:

When you get up and see the human cost of what this has done — these foreclosures, these bank repossessions, the fact that one in eight Americans and one in four children depend on food stamps to survive," Hedges says, it's clear the system has failed.

But how is that the fault of, say, the universities?

Hedges describes a "kind of withering of the humanities" in which the liberal education that would normally ask broad questions and challenge structure and assumptions has become corporate. Academic departments now carry the burden of raising their own funds. "This is pretty hard to do if you're in the classics department," Hedges notes.

Hedges says he also faults the "purging within economics departments and business schools of people who challenged what I call the utopian vision of globalization — the idea that somehow the marketplace should determine human behavior and guide human activity."

He says that dynamic is to blame for turning elite, Ivy League universities into, essentially, vocational schools.

Not a pretty sight at all. An important and, I suspect,  controversial book.

"Universities no longer train students to think critically, to examine and critique systems of power and cultural and political assumptions, to ask the broad questions of meaning and morality once sustained by the humanities. These institutions have transformed themselves into vocational schools." -- Chris Hedges

OSU Alumnus Makes Name for Himself

Turns out that Jim Nicholson, the highest ranking CIA officer ever convicted of espionage, is a graduate of Oregon State University's Geography program.

 I think we'll leave this item out of our departmental alumni newsletter. Might hurt those all-important donations.

No doubt he missed the day of the 'ethics' lecture.

And he has such a nice smile!

"Every man is surrounded by a neighborhood of voluntary spies." -- Jane Austen

"Fame or infamy, either one is preferable to being forgotten." -- Christopher Paolini

Racy Parody of MasterCard's 'Priceless' Commercial

 

This is priceless. Thanks to a 'friend' who forwarded it to me. 

"If it wasn't for pick-pockets and frisking at airports I'd have no sex life at all." -- Rodney Dangerfield

Four Questions for Republicans and Four Answers for Undecided Voters

From Jed Lewison at The Daily Kos. Thanks to Ari Michelsen.

Questions:

1) What was the average monthly private sector job growth in 2008, the final year of the Bush presidency, and what has it been so far in 2010?

2) What was the Federal deficit for the last fiscal year of the Bush presidency, and what was it for the first full fiscal year of the Obama presidency?

3) What was the stock market at on the last day of the Bush presidency? What is it at today?

4) Which party's candidate for speaker will campaign this weekend with a Nazi reenactor who dressed up in a SS uniform?

Answers:

1) In 2008, we lost an average of 317,250 private sector jobs per month. In 2010, we have gained an average of 95,888 private sector jobs per month. (Source) That's a difference of nearly five million jobs between Bush's last year in office and President Obama's second year.

2) In FY2009, which began on September 1, 2008 and represents the Bush Administration's final budget, the budget deficit was $1.416 trillion. In FY2010, the first budget of the Obama Administration, the budget deficit was $1.291 trillion, a decline of $125 billion. (Source) Yes, that means President Obama has cut the deficit -- there's a long way to go, but we're in better shape now than we were under Bush and the Republicans.

3) On Bush's final day in office, the Dow, NASDAQ, and S&P 500 closed at 7,949, 1,440, and 805, respectively. Today,  they are at 11,108, 2,512, and 1,183. That means since President Obama took office, the Dow, NASDAQ, and S&P 500 have increased 40%, 74%, and 47%, respectively.

4) The Republican Party, whose candidate for speaker, John Boehner, will campaign with Nazi re-enactor Rich Iott this weekend. If you need an explanation why this is offensive, you are a lost cause.

The moral of the story is this: if you don't vote this year -- you're not going to like what comes next.

"Those who are too smart to engage in politics are punished by being governed by those who are dumber. " ~Plato