What’s On My Mind

China is major producer of polycrystalline silicon, a key component of solar cells. The Washington Post last year documented how at least one Chinese producer was dumping a toxic byproduct from that manufacturing process on nearby farmland. Experts suspect that firms in other developing countries are taking similar shortcuts.

The high-tech industry generated more than 2.6 million tons of e-waste in the U.S. in 2005, about 87% of which ends up in landfills or incinerators, according to the report.

Most of the rest was exported to developing countries to be dismantled by low-wage workers, many of whom are exposed to dangerous substances lurking in the guts of personal computers and other electronics.

The article does note that research is being done into producing solar panels that require less hazardous chemicals to produce.

For the past three years, Marilyn Bess has operated MS Philly Organic, a small, low-traffic blog that features occasional posts about green living, out of her Manayunk home. Between her blog and infrequent contributions to ehow.com, over the last few years she says she's made about $50. To Bess, her website is a hobby. To the city of Philadelphia, it's a potential moneymaker, and the city wants its cut.

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In May, the city sent Bess a letter demanding that she pay $300, the price of a business privilege license.

"The real kick in the pants is that I don't even have a full-time job, so for the city to tell me to pony up $300 for a business privilege license, pay wage tax, business privilege tax, net profits tax on a handful of money is outrageous," Bess says.

It would be one thing if Bess' website were, well, an actual business, or if the amount of money the city wanted didn't outpace her earnings six-fold. Sure, the city has its rules; and yes, cash-strapped cities can't very well ignore potential sources of income. But at the same time, there must be some room for discretion and common sense.

When Bess pressed her case to officials with the city's now-closed tax amnesty program, she says, "I was told to hire an accountant."

She's not alone. After dutifully reporting even the smallest profits on their tax filings this year, a number — though no one knows exactly what that number is — of Philadelphia bloggers were dispatched letters informing them that they owe $300 for a privilege license, plus taxes on any profits they made.

You know, this just seems like a stupid fee. It's hard to believe that when the city codified this law they didn't include a lower limit. Yet apparently, "as long as there's the potential for it to be lucrative," Philly bloggers need to pay the city $300.

Of course, every blog is a potential money maker so technically any blogger must pay for the business privilege license. The good news though is that the $300 is a lifetime license. Bloggers also have the option of paying $50 a year.

While I certainly think anyone who makes a substantial amount of money from their business should pay taxes, the vast majority of bloggers don't make any money from their blogs, and of those who do, only a tiny fraction make anywhere near enough for the blog to be considered a business.

As it is now, this is the very model of a regressive tax. I certainly hope other cities don't follow Philadelphia's lead.

I would also think that if the city wants to increase tax revenues, there are probably large corporations operating within the city who aren't paying their fair share for city services.

Yes, I know this is from Little Green Footballs, but give it a read anyway. I promise your head won't explode. Quote:

This is a good time for some background information on Pamela Geller’s associate David Yerushalmi, who is an advocate for criminalizing Islam itself and imposing 20-year sentences on practicing Muslims. Yes, really.

He’s not simply anti-Muslim, though; Yerushalmi also wrote a now-infamous article titled “On Race: A Tentative Discussion, Part II,” in which he advocated a return to a pre-Bill of Rights Constitution, and the restriction of voting rights to white male land-owners. Again … yes, really.

I loved watching this guy on our local PBS station in the 1980s. His little shows would invariably mark the end of the broadcast day back then (just before God Bless America and static). A pretty good way to sign off for the day I thought.

He was 72 years old. I would never have guessed, but he had been the executive director of the Miami planetarium since 1973 and had started there back in 1965. The guy had literally been turning people onto astronomy for longer than I've been alive! What a career.

Here's Sky and Telescope's post about Horkheimer's passing.

In a surprising development, Texas House of Representatives Republican Debbie Riddle is actually asked to provide proof to her bizarre claim that unnamed, former FBI officials have told her of foreign citizens giving birth to babies in the U.S., only to raise them to become terrorists. Naturally, Riddle does what any self-respecting politico would do -- acts indignant.

To be fair, however, few British Ufologists now believe in the literal reality of spaceships – the so-called "nuts and bolts" school of thought. In this country, members of the UFO community are rather like members of the Church of England: they love the feel of the subculture – the conspiracy theories, the films, the TV series, the video games, the merchandise – without subscribing to the implausible doctrines. They leave that to Americans, where UFO conventions are packed with believers in "grays" (little grey aliens with wraparound eyes) and fabulously sophisticated spaceships. Even born-again Christians in the Bible Belt are in on the act, arguing that grays are a portent of the Antichrist.

Nice, if a bit snarky, article about last night's release of previously secret files from the National Archives.

The skeptic’s task is not to score rhetorical points, but to seek genuine understanding of fringe claims. We want to learn what is true, what is fake, what the difference between these may be — and (if I may borrow a phrase) learn why people believe weird things.

Late at night, hands cramping from note-taking, eyes bleary with research, I can sometimes catch a glimpse of the Goblin Universe: ”Holy shit, what if there really is a Bigfoot? What if ghosts actually do exist? What if 9/11 was an inside job? What if….”

Sometimes this feeling is uncomfortable, sometimes it is thrilling — but always it comes to me as something of a relief. Here’s why:

1. If it doesn’t even occur to us that the claim we’re examining could just possibly be true, we’re not honest investigators;
2. If we can’t feel the persuasiveness of a claim, we don’t really understand it.

To my mind, this is where the rubber meets the road: are we really willing to look fairly at weird claims? And, is understanding something we’re psychologically capable of achieving?

Daniel perfectly sums up the skeptical enterprise in that one, short section. Read the full post at Skepticblog.

We wanted to make it as healthy as possible," he said, "so it was baked, not fried.

Morrie Yohai, the man who created Cheez Doodles, died last week at the age of 90. According to the NY Daily News, Yohai was a mystic, WW II Marine pilot and philanthropist.

After WW II, Yohai took over the reigns from his father of the Old London Melba toast factory in the Bronx.

The business was already famous for Cheese Waffles, caramel popcorn and, presumably, Melba toast but Yohai wanted something new, and inspiration hit him after stumbling across a cornmeal extruding machine. Yohai did what only comes naturally to a snack food maker and started coating the extruded cornmeal with cheese.

Yohai left his vast Cheez Doodle empire after selling it to Bordon which decided to relocate to Columbus, OH. He then started teaching the next generation of snack food entrepreneurs at the New York Institute of Technology where he eventually became the associate dean of the school of management.

As time went by, Yohai discovered vast untapped wells of spirituality within himself. He studied Torah and Jewish mysticism, later writing over 500 poems and publishing two books of poetry. Yohai also founded the New York Sephardic Jewish Film Festival.