Seattle.BloggersPub

Can we put a value on Central Park? Do we want one for Seattle? Where could we put it? Couldn’t we say the idea of investing in new streets is passe, supporting an infrasturure of the past? It isn’t forward…

This is huge. From the Wall Street Journal:

California, the nation’s most populous state and a longtime bellwether
on environmental policy, will impose the first broad cap in the U.S. on
greenhouse-gas emissions, in a clear break with the federal government
over global warming.

In essense, California is going to create the nation’s first-ever carbon market, based on the same sort of cap-and-trade system that was so effective at reducing air pollution in the United States. 

In the short-to-medium term, this policy will leave California sitting pretty.  The smartest first steps for combatting global warming — ramping up conservation and efficiency, eliminating various market failures in the utility industry, and perhaps shifting taxes off of workers and onto carbon emissions — will all be good for just about everyone involved:  they’ll allow consumers and businesses to lower their energy expenses or earn more money.  Plus, establishing a market for carbon reductions is likely to unleash all sorts of creative solutions, from practically every sector of the state’s economy — and for a high-tech state, the spin-off benefits could be huge.

Still, the state is taking a risk here.  Have no doubt, someday, some energy-intensive business will announce — with hoopla and fanfare, though perhaps a bit disingenuously — that it’s leaving California for a place where carbon emissions have no consequences. There could be — will be — political backlash, and a move to weaken the carbon cap.

Which makes it all the more important for other states (paging Cascadia) to join in with California.  If everyone’s playing by roughly the same rules, there’s no “race to the bottom” — no attempt by businesses to flee to the places with the lowest standards.  Expanding the carbon market beyond California’s borders is the only sure way to lock in the state’s gains.

Plus broader carbon market would also create more options for businesses trying to comply with the law. For example, an energy intensive California business that needed to offset its carbon emissions could find low-cost opportunities in, say, Oregon, or Washington, or Idaho.  And that could make carbon reductions into a profit center for an enterprising state.

Imagine that:  turning climate protection into a money-making venture. And as far as I’m concerned, there’s nothing wrong with making money doing a good thing.

More (and smarter) on the subject here.

I just got totally screwed in our ESPN.com employees-and-alumni fantasy football league by the worst keeper rules I’ve ever seen. It’s a $200 league too so it hurts twice as bad. I don’t even want to get into the specifics, but let me just say, if you participate in a keeper league, be damn sure the people making the rules use standard keeper rules and don’t make up their own on the fly.

I feel crippled. And yet… I will still dominate.

If you’re already in enough fantasy leagues or you’re looking for a less “effort intensive” way to play some fantasy football, head on over to the Newsvine Hi-Lo Fantasy Football Challenge. The Hi-Lo Challenge is much quicker than full-roster fantasy football in that all you need to do is pick two NFL teams each week: one that you think will score a high number of points and one that will score a low number. The difference in their actual scores is your score for the week.

The catch — much like a “survivor pool” — is that you can’t pick the same high team or the same low team more than once during the season.

You can create up to 8 different entries and join a different group with each so as to play against different friends, colleagues, and people you’ve perhaps never met. So head on over to the Hi-Lo Challenge and test your football prognostication skills…

I just got totally screwed in our ESPN.com employees-and-alumni fantasy football league by the worst keeper rules I’ve ever seen. It’s a $200 league too so it hurts twice as bad. I don’t even want to get into the specifics, but let me just say, if you participate in a keeper league, be damn sure the people making the rules use standard keeper rules and don’t make up their own on the fly.

I feel crippled. And yet… I will still dominate.

If you’re already in enough fantasy leagues or you’re looking for a less “effort intensive” way to play some fantasy football, head on over to the Newsvine Hi-Lo Fantasy Football Challenge. The Hi-Lo Challenge is much quicker than full-roster fantasy football in that all you need to do is pick two NFL teams each week: one that you think will score a high number of points and one that will score a low number. The difference in their actual scores is your score for the week.

The catch — much like a “survivor pool” — is that you can’t pick the same high team or the same low team more than once during the season.

You can create up to 8 different entries and join a different group with each so as to play against different friends, colleagues, and people you’ve perhaps never met. So head on over to the Hi-Lo Challenge and test your football prognostication skills…

I just got totally screwed in our ESPN.com employees-and-alumni fantasy football league by the worst keeper rules I’ve ever seen. It’s a $200 league too so it hurts twice as bad. I don’t even want to get into the specifics, but let me just say, if you participate in a keeper league, be damn sure the people making the rules use standard keeper rules and don’t make up their own on the fly.

I feel crippled. And yet… I will still dominate.

If you’re already in enough fantasy leagues or you’re looking for a less “effort intensive” way to play some fantasy football, head on over to the Newsvine Hi-Lo Fantasy Football Challenge. The Hi-Lo Challenge is much quicker than full-roster fantasy football in that all you need to do is pick two NFL teams each week: one that you think will score a high number of points and one that will score a low number. The difference in their actual scores is your score for the week.

The catch — much like a “survivor pool” — is that you can’t pick the same high team or the same low team more than once during the season.

You can create up to 8 different entries and join a different group with each so as to play against different friends, colleagues, and people you’ve perhaps never met. So head on over to the Hi-Lo Challenge and test your football prognostication skills…

Chivalry suggests I should let the other guy go first, but he’s a moron so screw that. I’m going first.
Matt’s End-of-August Mariners Thoughts
0. God bless Rafael Soriano. It seems almost miraculous that he’s out of the hospital less than 24 hours later, and appears to be on the road to a full recovery. Take your […]

Anyone who has played around with Linux long enough to try and install an application or two has doubtless run into the problem of package dependencies.

I’ve frequently run into situations where application A is dependent on package B, which itself is dependent on packages C and D. Then C is dependent on package E, F and G while D is dependent upon package H. Sometimes you get to the point where you don’t care enough to find out what E-H depend on.

It almost reminds me of trying to manually walk through the process a recursive function goes through.

Well, anyway, going through the process of resolving dependencies can actually be rewarding if you reach the end of the meandering paths – especially when the end result is a working application. Even if you don’t manage to reach the end, though, the attempt in itself is good “getting your hands dirty” experience and worthy of a notch on your belt. That’s why I got a kick out of the following over at Dive Into Mark today:

Please don’t ask me for help installing these prerequisites. Consider it a character-building exercise.

Character-building indeed.

My brother got married last weekend down in Santa Monica, and as is customarily the duty of a family member, and in this case best man(!), we packed up the kids and the nice clothes and flew South. The ceremony was great, the weather was fantastic, and the trip to Disneyland, while tiring, was rewarding.

But the Airport security…

Have they caught one person as a result of airpot security measures? At least they’re not leaving any stone unturned, or foot unshod. My youngest daughter, the one in the picture of my profile, all of nine months and cute as a button, fell under the gaze of the man assessing potential threats.

“Stop.” He said forcefully. “Take off her shoes.”

Whose shoes, I briefly wondered. My wife and older daughter had already walked barefoot through the magic rectangle. I started again.

“The baby’s shoes. Take them off!”

While I may have some big feet, you’d have been a packing wizard if you’d managed to fit a roll of dental floss in my baby’s shoe-lets. Slippers really. Hardly even that.

I went and checked the TSA list of Prohibited and Permitted items. And while I found dynamite and hand grenades are in fact prohibited (I’ll have to make sure my older daughter knows about that), I didn’t see baby shoes.

He must have thought my nine-month old had Gel shoe inserts.

My brother got married last weekend down in Santa Monica, and as is customarily the duty of a family member, and in this case best man(!), we packed up the kids and the nice clothes and flew South. The ceremony was great, the weather was fantastic, and the trip to Disneyland, while tiring, was rewarding.

But the Airport security…

Have they caught one person as a result of airpot security measures? At least they’re not leaving any stone unturned, or foot unshod. My youngest daughter, the one in the picture of my profile, all of nine months and cute as a button, fell under the gaze of the man assessing potential threats.

“Stop.” He said forcefully. “Take off her shoes.”

Whose shoes, I briefly wondered. My wife and older daughter had already walked barefoot through the magic rectangle. I started again.

“The baby’s shoes. Take them off!”

While I may have some big feet, you’d have been a packing wizard if you’d managed to fit a roll of dental floss in my baby’s shoe-lets. Slippers really. Hardly even that.

I went and checked the TSA list of Prohibited and Permitted items. And while I found dynamite and hand grenades are in fact prohibited (I’ll have to make sure my older daughter knows about that), I didn’t see baby shoes.

He must have thought my nine-month old had Gel shoe inserts.

My brother got married last weekend down in Santa Monica, and as is customarily the duty of a family member, and in this case best man(!), we packed up the kids and the nice clothes and flew South. The ceremony was great, the weather was fantastic, and the trip to Disneyland, while tiring, was rewarding.

But the Airport security…

Have they caught one person as a result of airpot security measures? At least they’re not leaving any stone unturned, or foot unshod. My youngest daughter, the one in the picture of my profile, all of nine months and cute as a button, fell under the gaze of the man assessing potential threats.

“Stop.” He said forcefully. “Take off her shoes.”

Whose shoes, I briefly wondered. My wife and older daughter had already walked barefoot through the magic rectangle. I started again.

“The baby’s shoes. Take them off!”

While I may have some big feet, you’d have been a packing wizard if you’d managed to fit a roll of dental floss in my baby’s shoe-lets. Slippers really. Hardly even that.

I went and checked the TSA list of Prohibited and Permitted items. And while I found dynamite and hand grenades are in fact prohibited (I’ll have to make sure my older daughter knows about that), I didn’t see baby shoes.

He must have thought my nine-month old had Gel shoe inserts.