A Small Bucket List Achievement Courtesy of the New York Times

 Perhaps consistent with my academic and applied search for the truth, I have made it a mission to report errors appearing in the New York Times and other media.  Heretofore, no acknowledgement even for significant mistakes. 

 For example, the Times used the inter-bank currency exchange rate in Travel section estimates of costs abroad.  I tried mightily to suggest that just about every reader of the paper would never qualify for the preferred bank rate.  For years the Times significantly overestimated the U.S. dollar value in foreign transactions.

While never acknowledging this multi-year blunder, the Times simply provides a cost estimate in the local currency.

Today, I finally got an acknowledgement from the Times on a simple mistake: reporting that a Virginia suburb of Washington, D.C. is located east of the city. Of course, Vienna, VA is located westward:          

 

Here’s what a received from a Times Standards Assistant:

In these retirement days, I accept diminution and invisibility, so even small potatoes trump humble pie.

 

Prepare For a Quite Impactful New Definition of “Trace Greenhouse Gases”

           While I concentrate on finding truth affecting telecommunications and information policy, I cannot self-censor on the latest insult from a Wall Street Journal columnist. Paul H. Tice wants U.S. citizens and their elected representatives to deem carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide “naturally occurring” “trace greenhouse gases, not lawfully subject to any sort of regulation by the Environmental Protection Agency.  See Trump Can Topple the Climate-Change House of Cards; https://www.wsj.com/opinion/trump-can-topple-the-climate-house-of-cards-clean-energy-paris-b1b0e4f8.

          Apparently, any process that increases the volume of these gases does not matter.  If any greenhouse gas naturally occurs in the atmosphere, then apparently human generated increase in volume does not matter, no matter what harm it causes.

          Wow!  With this logic, we can rationalize further emasculation of environmental protection by looking for any naturally occurring, potentially toxic material. As oil and other petroleum compounds naturally exist underground, then might any manmade petroleum product qualify for a regulatory exemption? How about uranium, sulfur, hydrogen, any of the other elements and “naturally occurring” compounds?

          Who needs science when we can consider any naturally occurring material a gift from the Almighty and thereby exempt from regulation, no matter what we mortals do with it.