Author: Andrew Spittle

The Coal Ash Spill in Tennessee

Concerning the coal ash spill in Tennessee:

Authority officials initially said that about 1.7 million cubic yards of wet coal ash had spilled when the earthen retaining wall of an ash pond breached, but on Thursday they released the results of an aerial survey that showed the actual amount was 5.4 million cubic yards, or enough to flood more than 3,000 acres one foot deep. The amount now said to have been spilled is larger than the amount the Authority initially said was in the pond, 2.6 million cubic yards.

You would think that after so years and so many disasters ala Exxon Valdez companies would learn their lessons and go through every effort to try and assure that any toxic byproducts were well-contained. I just can’t imagine why a company (even a government-owned utility like the TVA) would risk the PR nightmare in order to save a little bit of money or cut a little corner.

What worse is that all these people living in the flooded area now have homes that are in a toxic epicenter. Even if the CEO of TVA relocates all the residents, which he claims he will, it still doesn’t replace the homes that were lost and the memories that can only be contained within them.

via Coal Ash Spill Is Much Larger Than Initially Estimated – NYTimes.com.

The Buzzwords of 2008

There’s an interesting article up on the NY Times website about the “buzzwords” of 2008. In addition to the fact that it’s interesting to read and what not there’s some cool design on the page too. The way in which the words are presented in really neat and worth checking out. Plus, some of the buzzwords are great; it’s fun to read through them and see how many of them you know/have heard of.

Here’s my favourite:

Greyjing – A nickname for Beijing, whose skies are some of the most polluted in the world.

Link – The Buzzwords of 2008 – NYTimes.com.

Follow up to Ebooks

The New York Times has another story up about the future of ebooks and their growing popularity. It also poses the question of maybe consumers have finally become comfortable with putting down paper and picking up plastic. I don’t know, I still can’t buy it. At least this one mentions more products than just the Kindle.

Link (via NY Times).

Farmar Hurt

Not good news for the Lakers yesterday; Jordan Farmar will be out until possibly the middle of February with knee surgery. Good news though is that Phil Jackson says the Lakers will be looking into getting another point guard with speed to back up Derek Fisher.

This is just not a good injury for the team to get at a time when they’re already showing signs of maybe not being the team that started out the season on a tear. Here’s hoping they pull it together even without Farmar and maintain their position and record.

Link (via ESPN).

Ebooks?

Gregory Cowles has a post today over on the New York Times website about how 2008 might be remembered as the year that ebooks finally caught on. He references the popularity (or is it a really low supply?) of products like Amazon’s Kindle as part of the reason behind his thinking this. He concludes by writing of a shift to ereaders:

I think I would have a hard time adapting to that — I live too much in my head already, and enjoy the solid physicality of ink on paper — but then, I’m the kind of guy who would have complained about the end of parchment or chiseled stone too. There’s no stopping the future. “When you get right down to it,” a publisher told me, “the story you’re delivering is always more important than the delivery system you use.”

I’m with Cowles here; no matter how tech-savvy I am and no matter how many wonderful uses I find for technology in my life I will never be able to pick up an electronic copy of a book with the same kind of enthusiasm and feelings as a traditional print copy. I look at apps like Classics for the iPhone and iPod Touch and think that if something this well-designed still can’t make reading books on a display a suitable replacement then I’m not sure anything really will.

Also, I think I disagree with the publisher quoted above. I think that an intriguing story becomes inherently less interesting to me if the medium of presentation is one that I cannot accomodate. I just relate it to whenever I try to edit a friend’s college paper on my computer. No matter how good the paper is it simply does not hold my attention and I don’t read it as thoroughly as I do when I print out a copy. Just my two cents.

Thanks to Andrew Sullivan for the tip on the article.

New Photos Up

I just uploaded some new photography as well as some that I dug up from my collection. Head over to my Flickr page to see them in a larger size. The new ones are somewhat of an experiment that I did with a sunset and tree branches. The older ones come from a trip to China in 2007. Enjoy!

Back at WordPress.com

So I’ve moved this blog back to its original place at WordPress.com. I’ve found that the exposure that is inherent through this (i.e. getting traffic from WordPress’ own tag listings, etc.) is greater than anything I’m willing to do on my own. Since this is really a small project for me I’m not willing to spend the time drawing traffic to my site through commenting on other blogs, etc. With that in mind I’ve moved it back here but the rest of my personal site will remain the same. In addition, my portfolio will remain hosted through my other site. Anyway, enjoy the future posts here.

Regarding the RIAA

Recently the RIAA announced that it would stop prosecuting individual file-sharers; rather, what they plan on doing is entering into agreements with ISPs and will send that ISP an email when they discover that someone is downloading content illegally. For the consumer this is a slight improvement, but ultimately is not enough in my mind.

While this could theoretically remove the legal ramifications that illegal downloads now have (provided that you are actually caught) in an internet world dominated by Verizon and Comcast this is not a large enough step. Basic economics would say that those who want to download music for free would simply move to an ISP that is not in an agreement with the RIAA; however, the availability of this is what matters. With the combination of corporate behemoths, like the two aforementioned companies, dominating in terms of providing internet to many people for relatively good prices and the economic downturn the ability for some to pay an independent ISP (like I do) $50+ a month for service might dwindle. Consequently they would be more inclined to get internet for a cheaper price regardless of the restrictions because limited internet access (to many) is better than no internet access.

Also of concern to me is what happens when the RIAA identifies your IP as partaking in illegal downloads. Granted, they claim that notifying the ISP does not entail any required action on behalf of the ISP, but I have a hunch the expectation would be that the ISP would eventually cancel your account. What then happens to your ability to get internet? Will some type of blacklist be drawn up of those customers who have had internet service terminated because of file-sharing? Much of this would be worst case, conspiratorial scenario, but it is possible and its consequences frankly scare me. If an ISP is put under pressure by the RIAA to not allow file-sharing then what would be there motivation for taking on new customers who were booted by Verizon, Comcast, or any other ISP for illegal downloads?

Don’t get me wrong, this is certainly a step in the right direction, but I’m still waiting for the day that the RIAA and the music labels recognize the fact that they can create new forms of revenue that are outside of CD sales. Profit off artists in a different way and allow their music to spread to a greater fan base that would then be more willing to go see a concert, buy memorabilia, or support the artist in some other way. Just a thought.

Richard Dawkins and “psychics”

Last week Boing Boing published an article that has video links to a 6-part interview between Richard Dawkins and Derren Brown, a magician and illusionist who has become increasingly known for his “mind-reading abilities.” The interview is interesting in that Brown gives a pretty clear explanation of what code reading is and how psychics are able to appear as though they know the most intimate of details about you when they are really just reading you’re expressions and reactions.

Here’s the link to the Boing Boing article and here’s a direct YouTube link.

Another Trey Ratcliff link

A little while ago I posted a great photo from Trey Ratcliff (Stuck in Customs on Flickr). Today I came across a great tutorial of his on Abduzeedo (an interesting design inspiration site by the way). The tutorial is a little glimpse into the workflow that Trey undergoes in his creation of his photography. To me it’s fascinating to see these glimpses into how designers and photographers work and the process they go through. If you’re interested in getting familiar with HDR imagery and photography it’s worth a read.

Here’s the link.