The US goes after the (Wiki) Leaker. But what about the Flooders?

So the US is all upset about Julian Assange and Wikileaks. They have expressed their glee that he's been arrested in the UK for charges in Sweden. Eric Holder has launched a Justice Department probe. Some have even suggested that he be charged in the US with spying.

But here's an interesting experiment. Ask people you know what they know about the leaks. They'll probably tell you they heard (at least) the following:

• The USA pressured countries to take Guantanamo prisoners
• Saudi Arabia is the primary funding source for Al Qaeda
• Egypt would be 'ok' with the US bombing Iran
• Hillary Clinton ordered her staff to spy on representatives at the UN

Once they've told you about the leaks, ask them where they learned of them. Ask them "So you read this on the Wikileaks site?" I bet that 100% of them say no. They heard it from The New York Times (and the multitude of other papers who republished them after that).

Julian Assange didn't steal the secret cables. Bradley Manning did and will likely spend the rest of his life in a military prison. Assange just published them. Just like the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and The LA Times, etc. And since most people learned of the cable's contents from those news sites/papers, aren't they the more damaging source? Aren't those 'sites' the ones who are really revealing these 'secret' cables to the world?

So why hasn't the US government pounded its fists on the table demanding the editors of the NY Times be arrested?

It's all a little strange.

It's True: Hollywood Secretly Hates The Environment

In a reprise of my earlier post Peon Pulpit Tips To Save The Environment I thought it might be good to see what the movie industry has done to curb their oil burning, tree cutting behavior in pursuit of the almighty dollar. As I noted in my earlier post, the DVD industry produced approximately 214,289,319 lbs of plastic in 2005. We now have new numbers for 2007. In 2007, Hollywood produced 431,114,394 lbs of plastic! Hollywood has increased their plastic dumping by more than 100% in just TWO YEARS!!! That's 195, 550 metric tons. An average car weighs about 1 metric ton, so imagine the weight of 195,550 cars and you have an idea of how much plastic Hollywood produces. So much for the love.

PRODUCTION OF PLASTIC FOR DVD'S
Year	# Of DVDs with Cases Produced	Weight Of Plastic (grams)	Weight (LBS)	Gallons Of Water Used (2.4 gal/lb)	% Change
2005	1,200,000,000	97,200,000,000	214,289,319	514,294,365
2007	2,414,200,000	195,550,200,000	431,114,394	1,034,674,546	101.18%

I'm Sorry, What Was That?

tlhIngan maH!

I just read a news article about Joe Vento, the Philadelphia steak shop owner who's in all sorts of trouble for posting a small sign outside his cheese steak restaurant in Philadelphia that read

This is America, when ordering speak English

The Philadelphia Commission on Human Relations is claiming that Vento is discriminating against people who cannot speak English. I did notice that the website for Philadelphia is also only in English, even though they offer short messages to speakers of Spanish, Vietnamese, Chinese, Russian, Cambodian, etc.

Stunningly, there's no Klingon version. Wow. Even Google offers a Klingon version of their search engine. Does this not smack of Klingon anti-love? The tiny, poorly funded Klingon Language Institute even outdoes Philadelphia's web site in offering a (much larger) message to speakers of THIRTY languages, compared to Philadelphia's paltry seven.

As I sit here, late at night thinking about this, I think Mr. Vento should hire a Klingon speaking lawyer to represent him, then have that lawyer speak for him at the Commission's hearings, demanding of course, that a translator be present. All briefs should be filed in Klingon as well.

I would love the see the commission's reaction Mr Vento's lawyer responded to their questions with a beautiful sounding "nuqjatlh? jIyajbe'!"

(By The way - A shout out to the Klingon homies over at bo logh. Very nice)

Peon Pulpit Presents: Tips To Save The Environment

I keep seeing all these adds on TV where some famous movie star is telling me how I can save the Earth by brewing my coffee with a gold filter (never mind that it might cause you to have a heart attack...the coffee does taste better), or some such thing. This has inspired me. I've decided it's time for the Peon Pulpit to get in the game. So without further ado, here's the first round of the Peon Pulpit's "Save the Earth!" tips:

Environmental Tip #1

Stop buying DVDs.

Seriously. In 2005, an estimated 1.2 billion DVDs were sold. Now, that's a lot of plastic isn't it? The average DVD by itself weighs 16 grams. So if my math is right, that's:

1,200,000,000 (X) 16 = 19,200,000,000 grams = 42,328,754.3 lbs of plastic.

And that's not even including the packaging material. The case weighs about 65 grams. So again with the math:

1,200,000,000 (X) 65 = 78,000,000,000 grams = 171,960,565 lbs of plastic.

So all in all, DVD sales in 2005 resulted in the use of 214,289,319 pounds of non-biodegradable plastic. Wow, that is a lot of plastic. That of course says nothing about the cost of the printing materials, the number of trees cut to print the paper inserts, fuel to transport them to stores, etc. How much oil is used in that process? How many pollutants are released in the manfacture of a DVD copy of "A River Runs Through It"? What contribution does all that plastic manufacture have on global warming??

Suffice to say, you need to stop buying DVDs. And to think Jennifer Gardner is all worried about bio-degradable paper coffee filters...