When authenticity menaces authenticity: the head of Britain’s National Society of Master Thatchers is warning that the 2,000-year-old craft of roof-thatching could be killed off if historic-preservation authorities enforce rules insisting on the use of locally grown thatching materials, such as Cotswold long straw and East Anglia water reed. Because the English materials are not as durable as thatching supplies imported from growers in Turkey, Russia and South Africa, some homeowners face frequent need for rethatching which can make it uneconomical for them to keep up centuries-old cottages. “There are about 50,000 thatched buildings in Britain, around half of which are listed buildings and therefore come under the jurisdiction of English Heritage.” “We are traditionally a passive bunch,” said the head of the thatchers’ group. “But we are livid that English Heritage are determined to kill off new developments in thatching.” (Rajeev Syal, Daily Telegraph, Sept. 7).
Posts Tagged ‘environment’
Torricelli’s environmental patronage
Ethics-challenged former New Jersey Sen. Robert Torricelli is back in business: “A federal judge who was appointed to the bench after being recommended by Mr. Torricelli has assigned him as special master of an environmental cleanup site in Jersey City, a position that allows him to control millions of dollars in contracts and collect an estimated $500,000 a year in administrative fees.” (David Kocieniewski, “Hardly in Disgrace, Torricelli Emerges as a Trenton Power”, New York Times, Aug. 26). Julian Sanchez at Reason “Hit & Run” comments.
Lawsuit: chemical suppliers, banks should pay Gulf War vets
Houston attorney Gary Pitts has filed a lawsuit in Brooklyn on behalf of veterans of the first U.S.-led war with Iraq “alleging that companies that exported chemicals to Iraq in the 1980s, and the banks that financed those deals, are liable for illnesses the U.S. veterans sustained from exposure to chemical weapons stockpiles that were blown up during the 1991 war.” (Phil Hirschkorn and Deborah Feyerick, “Gulf War veterans sue banks, firms over chemicals”, CNN, Aug. 20; Hartford Courant; Newsday)(& letter to the editor, Sept. 18).
Menace of church incense
Just when you thought it was safe to approach the altar: “An Irish Government minister has warned that burning incense in churches could be harmful to the altar boys and girls who help Roman Catholic priests celebrate mass. Jim McDade, who is a former family doctor, said the children were at risk because they inhaled the carcinogenic smoke produced when incense is burnt close by.” (James Helm, “Irish minister links incense to cancer”, BBC, Aug. 22).
Well, that didn’t take long
A law firm “announced today that it has filed a class action lawsuit in the Court of Common Pleas in Cuyahoga County, Ohio on behalf of all persons and entities residing in the United States who lost electrical power during the massive energy blackout that began on August 14, 2003.” (PR Newswire/Yahoo, Aug. 18). “The Great Blackout of 2003 is sure to generate countless lawsuits aimed at holding someone liable for the massive economic losses it caused – but experts said yesterday the only ones cashing in may be the lawyers.” (William Neuman, “Only Lawyers To Get a $$ Surge From Big Losses”, New York Post, Aug. 16; Adam Liptak, “Plaintiffs Face Hurdles Proving Liability”, New York Times, Aug. 15)(more on law firm Cauley Geller: Stephen Taub, “The Suing Game”, CFO.com, Jun. 15, 2001; Wesley Brown, “Predatory Law Firms Hover as Company Woes Are Made Public”, Northwest Arkansas Morning News, Dec. 23, 2001 (PDF first, second pages)).
“Humboldt Creamery fined for ‘over-reporting’ chemical release”
From California’s North Coast: “The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has reached a settlement with Humboldt Creamery that requires the company to pay $5,000 for allegedly over-reporting the amount of nitric acid it released into the environment in 1999 and 2000. Ironically, the actual amount of nitric acid the creamery released was … zero pounds. That’s right, zip. Zilch. Nada. But it’s still being fined, simply because it reported incorrectly.” The company says the agency originally sought to impose a fine of $30,000 and declined to negotiate the issue unless the creamery hired its own lawyer. “It’s kind of a rare thing,” said Leo Kay of the EPA’s San Francisco press office. “Most fines involve under-reporting, not over-reporting.” (Jennifer Morey, Eureka (Calif.) Times-Standard, Jul. 16).
Welcome Wall Street Journal readers
Our editor has an op-ed in today’s Journal on the latest developments in California’s “shakedown lawsuit” scandal, in which law firms were discovered to be mass-mailing demand letters holding up small businesses for thousands of dollars apiece under the state’s uniquely liberal “unfair competition law”, otherwise known as Business and Professions Code 17200. In brief, the Democratic leadership of the state legislature in Sacramento is using the scandal as an excuse to push through legislation that, along with a bit of window-dressing reform directed at the more obvious shakedown artists, would actually increase lawyers’ leverage to obtain settlements from defendants under section 17200. (Walter Olson, “The Shakedown State”, Wall Street Journal, Jul. 22). We covered the scandal earlier on Jan. 15-16 and Mar. 3; for more on California’s bounty-hunting Prop 65, follow these links and in particular our post for Nov. 4-5, 2002. More: The Civil Justice Association of California maintains a lot of information on the status of section 17200 legislation, especially here, here and here.
“Erin Brockovich’s Junk Science”
“Her new suit against oil companies and Beverly Hills has little scientific grounding” and the one that originally established her fame, over groundwater contamination in Hinkley, Calif., wasn’t much better, argues columnist Leon Jaroff at Time magazine (Jul. 11). We looked into the Brockovich saga a few years ago and came to very similar conclusions (Reason magazine, Oct. 2000); see also numerous posts in this space.
U.K.: “Trio arrested over seaweed theft”
“Three men spent seven hours in police cells after being arrested for ‘stealing’ seaweed from a Sussex beach to feed their pet tortoises.” Two police cars and an officer on motorcycle swooped down on friends Simon Braisby, Tony Sims and Deon Marshall who “were gathering sea kale on Eastbourne beach for Mr Sims’ five tortoises. … The men were arrested, handcuffed and put in the back of different police cars, then locked up in separate cells while Mr Braisby’s home was searched. After six hours in custody the men were interviewed and eventually released without charge.” Authorities told reporters the seaweed was considered protected flora. (Brighton and Hove Argus, week ending Jun. 25, first roundup item; “Arrests after ‘rare’ plant hunt”, BBC, Jun. 24) (via Dr. Weevil who got it from Electric Venom; check out the latter’s comment section for news of a German anthill-protection law).
Font darkness
Thanks again to readers who wrote in on the question of how to make the font darker. The most elegant solution was the “stylesheet switching” reader option suggested by Plogs.net, but since we aren’t confident of our technical capability to implement that option smoothly, we’re falling back on what everyone else suggested, which is just to darken the font for everyone by adjusting the “blogbody” color value in Cascading Style Sheets.
Speaking of light and darkness, Virginia Postrel has a wonderful article newly online at D Monthly (“Spaces: Technocrats and Glowing Panties”, not dated; via her Dynamist blog) on how Texas regulations prescribing fluorescent rather than incandescent lighting in new commercial buildings, billed as “cost-free” by environmentalist and technocratic advocates, are in fact anything but cost-free as an aesthetic and commercial matter.