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Warning! Eating books could seriously damage your health
Daniel Kalder, Guardian
US libraries and charity shops face a battle to hang on to their children’s classics over fears they might be too dangerous
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… You think I’m joking. But apparently the US government believes that these old publications might give children brain damage. You see, prior to 1985, many books were printed with inks and paints that used lead pigments. Last year, following the Chinese “killer toy” scandal, Congress passed the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act, imposing strict limits on the amount of lead permitted in anything intended for use by children aged 12 and under, from toys to bikes to books. The law was retroactive and came into force on 10 February, and now – according to Walter Olson, an expert in American legal lunacy – anyone who tries to peddle old books for kids containing lead may be in serious trouble: “Penalties … can include $100,000 fines and prison time, regardless of whether any child is harmed.”
Now, you might object that a child would have to eat a great many copies of the Partridge Family Special 1972 before enough lead was in his or her bloodstream to do any damage. And you’d be right, as there has never been a case of a child killed, wounded or mentally impaired by exposure to a browning reproduction of David Cassidy’s face. However, mere facts rarely have much force against the juggernaut of ill-thought-out laws rushed through in a blur of media hype.
(20 February 2009)
Will the Obama administration track your driving
Ezra Klein, The American Prospect
Some surprising news out of the Department of Transportation today as Ray LaHood suggests that the Obama administration is considering taxing people based on how many miles they drive. A vehicle miles traveled tax, as the proposal is often called, has been under consideration in states like Rhode Island and Idaho and has, not surprisingly, proven pretty unpopular. First, it’s a tax. Second, it requires the installation of a GPS chip to record miles driven and beam the information to centralized computers. Sorry, did that sound Orwellian? I meant a small transponder that informs the government of your driving habits.
Crap. This is hard to sell.
In the interview with the Associated Press, LaHood set the vmt in opposition to a gasoline tax, which he “firmly opposes,” at least during the current recession. There’s some logic to that. Gasoline is a very visible, and very unpredictable, cost. Every summer, particularly in recent years, the price of fuel becomes a tier one political issue, in large part because it rises so much from the winter. It’s hard to imagine a gasoline tax being sustained.
(20 February 2009)
Related: Transportation secretary eyes taxing miles driven (Associated Press)
Discussion in the comments at the Feb 20 Drumbeat (TOD).
The gas tax is already an approximation of a mileage tax. To the extent that it isn’t a perfect mileage tax… great! It’s also tax on heavy cars, which cause more road damage, and a tax on gas guzzlers, which are, you know, bad.
As for the politics… I don’t get why people think that “well, it’s politically infeasible to raise the gas tax, but voters will just love it if we set up a costly system to track all of their driving habits and send them a bill for how much they’ve driven.” Just weird.
The Onion takes on high-tech consumerism (video)
The Onion News Network
Several pieces of satirical videos that take on high-tech consumerism.
Sony releases new stupid piece of s* (Beware: High % of profanity.)
Apple introduces revolutionary new laptop with no keyboard
Mean automakers dash nation’s hope for flying cars
The Onion Store offers products like “iFeast Pet-Feeding & MP3 Docking Station Gift Box” and “USB Powered Toaster Gift Box”
(February 2009)
