Author: paladin1787

Best of Twitter 4: My own green thoughts

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Flickr CC photo from Jim Linwood.

Flickr CC photo from Jim Linwood.

Blogging about Applied Sciences, Inc, the world’s third largest producer of carbon nanotubes – tech that could double the Volt car’s milage. 4:32 PM Feb 12th

If it’s true that the first passive solar building stateside will be in Yellow Springs (near here), I’m on it like weatherstripping. 8:51 AM Feb 19th

If we kept all compostables from landfills, they’d be smaller but have more concentrated toxicity. & do compostables help break down toxics? 3:46 PM Feb 21st

I’m passionate about the “triple bottom line,” AKA “People, planet, profit.” I love responsible companies. 10:57 AM Feb 25th

I literally just smuggled home glass bottles from my in-laws’ trash can in order to recycle them. My wife would be appalled: “Recycle Nazi!” 6:19 PM Mar 15th

I made a narrated slideshow about a company whose carbon nanofibers double the capacity of any li-ion battery. http://tinyurl.com/cj5pcd 2:01 PM Mar 26th (See next tweet, also)

Yes, that’s right – capacity doubled for electric cars, trains, laptops, everything. Don’t know why this hasn’t hit the NY Times front page. 2:04 PM Mar 26th

Which is greener to store and ship food: recyclable cans, recyclable glass jars (not reused), or non-recyclable Tetra Paks (trademark)? 5:15 PM Mar 26th

Are there Superfund sites near you? Could they still hurt you and yours? Find out: http://www.epa.gov/superfund/sites/index.htm 11:39 PM Mar 28th

Looking for green organizations, whether media, literary, academic, causes, or products? Check out who I follow- I’ve tried to be selective. 1:15 PM Apr 2nd

Ever wondered what companies or gov’ts in your area have permits to pollute waterways? It’s as easy as a zip code: http://tinyurl.com/d2lqg 39:33 PM Apr 4th

I had been thinking about switching to a straight razor because a single blade can last 7-10 years. Lotta waste saved! #ecomonday 10:08 AM May 4th

Green bloggers out there: plan to attend the Investigative Reporters and Editors (ire.org) conference next year. This year’s was rockin’. 10:59 AM Jun 16th

Best of Twitter 3: My thoughts (non-green)

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Flickr CC photo from ajgelado.

Flickr CC photo from ajgelado.

Google’s advanced search: limit the domain and the file type, and find every spreadsheet an org has posted to the net. 12:03 PM Mar 7th

$10,000: The usual DAILY fine, legally-mandated, for a nonprofit withholding its IRS-990 tax form from a reporter. 12:06 PM Mar 7th

Just about every city pays a flat fee per street light per year for electricity, whether 100% or 60% of them are working. Good story idea. 5:40 PM Mar 7th

Im a connoisseur of columns; today’s on hating fireworks may be my fav, ever. Agree or not, do yourself the favor: http://tinyurl.com/kw2ncl Jul 2nd

Best of Twitter 2: Links to others’ non-green stuff

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Flicker CC photo from respres.

Flicker CC photo from respres.

101cookbooks.com is genius. It seems like the healthiest, tastiest recipes end up on here… And the author goes fresh and local as a rule. 12:15 PM Feb 26th

Sandwich: Emmentaler and white cheddar, cucumber, red onion, sprouts, sunflower seeds, homemade slaw and mayo on whole wheat. windscafe.com 10:06 PM Feb 28th

Groups now help move homeless people into foreclosed-on empty homes. The new squatting. (NYTimes) Right on, I say! http://tinyurl.com/cgwdpn 8:46 PM Apr 9th

A US map of job losses by county — at its worst recently. http://tinyurl.com/c2hbfs No wonder I can’t find a writing job. @guynameddave 9:59 PM Apr 19th

The world’s worst official acronyms: http://tinyurl.com/cmpt4b Learn about RINGO, BINGO, BONGO, SOFA, and PIIGS. 12:36 PM May 1st

RT @Digidave Bob Woodward, this Saturday, told journalists he wakes up in the morning and asks himself “what are the bastards hiding?” 1:47 AM Jun 16th

Best of Twitter series 1: Personal

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Flicker CC image from Muffet

Flicker CC image from Muffet

I tweet a lot more than I write on here, and I hate to leave you as-yet-Twitter-shunners hanging. So much that I share in Twitter might be useful to you, and I can’t stand that you’ll never see it. The Twitter broadcast on the left sidebar is only so useful, because inevitably you miss 80-90 percent of my tweets.

Thus my idea: I’ll split the best of my (currently 202) Twitter updates into a couple/few groups, and I’ll post them here en masse.

It’ll be jumpy reading, but journalism is doing weird things these days. See Politifact.com, that recently won a Pulitzer. Or this Motherjones article about the future of journalism — itself written in a semi-futuristic journalism form, no doubt influenced by Twitter itself. My last story about funding charity healthcare had a longish sidebar done entirely in bullets. I didn’t do it that well, but it was good practice for later.

I’ll publish one section a day. The sections will include:

  • 1. Personal
  • 2. Links to others’ (non-green) stuff
  • 3. My (non-green) thoughts
  • 4. My own green thoughts
  • 5. Links to others’ green stuff

Section five will have to be broken up into two days, since it’s so long. I guess that has primarily been my niche over the past 6 months. Here’s the first section today.

Personal

Curry’s wonderful. Just ate Kashi Moroccan Curry 7 whole grain pilaf: “Moroccan coconut curry with currants, lentils and a hint of ginger.” 12:24 PM Feb 19th

101cookbooks.com is genius. It seems like the healthiest, tastiest recipes end up on here… And the author goes fresh and local as a rule. 12:15 PM Feb 26th

My wife got hit on today – “You’re married, huh?” he said. “Yeah,” was her reply. “That sucks,” he said. 1:00 AM Mar 21st

So the student newspaper at my college just got shut down by its publisher, the college. I will be a part of the underground replacement. 8:25 PM Apr 14th

RT @thechristin sick days. way more fun 10 years ago. 8:27 PM Apr 14th

One percent milk is genius. Skim and two percent are grossly inadequate. 11:36 PM Apr 28th

Local orgs pay for laid-off worker health care

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The quasi-public hospital in Wilmington is picking up the brunt of the cost to care for the health of laid-off air park workers — soon to be, possibly, all 8-10,000 of them.

The other part of the funding came from DHL itself via the Clinton County Foundation, itself a 501c3 staffed by prominent public figures.

I wrote the story about this tonight.

I spent several hours scouring a grant application and crunching the numbers within. I found something mildly fishy with the application — that the local hospital minimized the cost it was actually going to incur with the plan it proposed. Not my place to decide whether or not it was intentional. But I certainly reported it.

Ohio libraries in danger

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Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland recently announced a proposal to cut state library funding by 30 percent, on top of a 20 percent cut already this year. (Yes, that would total a 50 percent budget cut. And 70 percent of Ohio public libraries use the state as their sole funding source.)

I wrote a story about this today — but I think it’s primarily about the uproar libraries are generating. They’ve embarked on a huge PR campaign to rally supporters behind them. I grew up on the library, so I’m a but partial. But come on — in the current economy, it’s a social justice issue. People can’t afford home internet, and they have to use internet to find jobs or apply for unemployment. News organizations can (and should) report on the social justice aspect of stories, which I did.

Find my story here. (I think that’s a permenant link. Comment on this post if it doesn’t work for you, and I’ll post a PDF of the story.)

On another note, I’ve requested raw data in a giant spreadsheet from the local police department. The editor’s already sold on the idea — this data will form the basis of a series of stories on how the crime scene has changed in Wilmington since the economic crisis hit.

I just hope I can stick it out in south-western Ohio long enough to write the stories. I’m itching to move to whatever city in which I decide to attend J-school. (I’m in the process of transferring.) City life has a strong draw in part because I get to sell my car and buy camera equipment with the proceeds. :)