Keeping the BP Disaster in Perspective

I was watching the news recently, listening to several stations continue to report on the BP oil-spill-disaster, showing countless pictures of oil covered critters, and diagrams with plums of oil filling up most of the gulf. Reporters over and over indicated that this event was the worst industrial disaster the world had ever seen. Reactions from many have been to consider boycotting BP filling stations, and donating money/time to the efforts to cleanup the animals, and the coast affected by the tragedy. Enraged by the greed of BP Execs and many engineers who “overlooked” certain warning signs focusing on a bottom line profit, many are calling for the BP execs to be tried in court, and held responsible for their actions. But is this really the worst case of greed and negligence the world has ever seen? Are these BP teams who are seeking profit really guilty of the worst case of disaster capitalism the world has seen?

In December of 1984 a Union Carbide (now owned by Dow Chemical) pesticide plant exploded in Bhopal killing over 5,000 people, and leaving over 120,000 others with a need for lifelong care. After the disaster, Union Carbide settled with the Indian government for $470 million….$350 million of which was the insurance sum…meaning that most of the victims got less than $1000 dollars each. When Dow purchased Union Carbide in 2001, there was finally hope that victims from the Bhopal incident when Dow announced that it would promptly “compensate victims of Union Carbide’s past negligence”. Dow promptly paid over $2 billion to… 14 asbestos plaintiffs in Texas, doing nothing for the victims who were continuing to suffer in Bhopal. Worse still, some 25 years AFTER the incident, some 390 tons of toxic chemicals abandoned at the UC plant CONTINUE to leak into the groundwater of the region affecting thousands of residents that depend on it. Not only was the area not cleaned up, and not only were the victims not taken care of, but the incident has continued to affect generations beyond the explosion due to the lack of concern for taking care of the area.

The BP incident in the gulf is terrible. The beauty and wildlife of that region have been destroyed, and may likely be affected for several generations to come…but looking at the numbers from the explosion itself, of the 126 oil workers who were on board the BP oil rig… 11 people went missing, and an additional 8 were critically injured. So well say that 19 people were DIRECTLY affected from the explosion of the rig… that is .000152% of the number of people who were affected by what happened in Bhopal.

A valid argument would say that as of now, we cant tell definitely how many people may be impacted by eating fish from the contaminated area, or drinking water from that area in the gulf. Very true. It’s also very difficult to compare the disasters based on the value of human life alone, when so many animals, and so much of the ocean has been destroyed by this disaster. But this is also not the first time we have seen greed take precedence over the value of the environment, and especially over the value of human lives. I don’t write all of this to say, “Get over the BP thing” or to try to say it isn’t that bad. I hate that animals are getting sick, I hate that the once beautiful coastline is being destroyed, and I hate that oil continues to leak into the ocean. I am saying that I believe we need some perspective on what is going on here, and we need to recognize that we have the opportunity to do something about it. Daily we have the opportunity to cast our vote for corporate accountability, greed, and/or negligence. With every dollar you spend, you are casting your vote…buying from a company that has ethical standards, and supporting what they do. BP is obviously not the first company to ever cut corners to lower costs and increase profits at the cost of the environment and human lives. Many of the products we purchase every day are made in less than savory environments for people working for well under what we would consider a fair days wage.

Should BP be held accountable for what went on? Definitely, but hopefully this will also serve as a wakeup call that above huge profits, the preservation of human lives, and the care for the environment deserve a value on a company’s spreadsheet. So vote. Do your homework; try buying a product that might be slightly more expensive if you recognize that the company’s values are in line with your own. Don’t let BP off the hook, we can’t let this be another Bhopal…Encourage social and environmental responsibility with the way you spend your $$.

Trade Secret: Kiwi Leather Lotion

As anyone who knows me well can tell you, it turns out that since sometime in middle school, I have always had a lot of shoes. After graduating college, this habit unfortunately got worse rather than better. My closet is full, as well as a large shelving unit in my room. At some time though, I realized that I cant wear basketball shoes every day of my life, and because of this work thing that gets in the way of me playing basketball, I do have to own some dress shoes. My initial approach was to spend very little on dress shoes, as to have more money to burn on basketball shoes; a poor decision. Cheap shoes fall apart quickly, look very cheap, and are very rarely actually comfortable.

In an effort to be a grown-up, I decided to actually invest in some nice leather shoes that I expect to last me longer than 3 months. Part of the ownership of this type of shoe, is caring for it. The product that I have recently found to help me do that is Kiwi’s Leather Lotion. (No my blog isnt turning into a commercial, I just was motivated to write about this after using it.) Kiwi’s Leather Lotion can be applied to any color leather shoes (I probably wouldnt put it on white) and is used to give the leather that healthy glow, allowing it to last longer, and continue to repel water. I purchased the leather lotion only after thinking I had completely ruined my shoes by wearing them in a recent New York City downpoor. Covered in dirty water, street salt, and who knows what, they didnt exactly look that great. After cleaning them off, and applying some of the Kiwi leather lotion however, I was able to revive the shoes to their original condition….and frankly the leather looks better now than it did upon original purchase.

I would probably suggest using the leather lotion in combination with mink oil or another type of water repellent that can be used on shoes. That said, I would shoot for “lotion-ing” them once a month with typical wear patterns. The lotion helps to reduce leather cracking and dryness, and also helps to prevent creasing in the shoes from normal wear. I purchased my bottle at Target for $4.99 I believe; definitely worth checking out.

New New Years Resolutions Pt 1

Recent research shows that while 52% of participants in a resolution study were confident of success with their goals…while at the end of the year only 12% had actually achieved their goals. That being said, most likely, you or someone close to you has already ditched their New Years resolution. Thus, I propose to not make resolutions until the middle-to-end of January. It gives me a good amount of time to feel things out, see where I want to take things this year, and see what other people have started failing miserably at.  This technique also allows me to dismiss myself from conversations dealing with topics like “What’s your resolution this year?” and “You know what you should try and do next year?” With this release from such conversations, I never end up looking like a failure statistic, and I never have to worry about anyone holding me accountable to my goals.  In addition, anything big I DO accomplish during the year sounds even better because it was IN ADDITION to normal yearly goals. I’m all about capitalizing on maximum success.  Keeping my goals a secret keeps things exciting for those around me, and never lets failures in my life receive much attention. Haha. That being said, I would like to share some very realistic, and very practical goals for the New Year.  The kind of stuff that is good to take a look at with fresh eyes in the beginning of any new year, and can serve as a great motivator for actually creating and knocking a few things off the ol’ list. Some of this stuff is coming from my list of “I’ll get to it eventually” some of it is coming from the Micah Smith-investments-in-future-success-list.

Backup/Cleanup Your Computer

I work in IT for a living, and many people ask why I don’t share more “tips & tricks” related to information technology on my blog…well to be honest, I do it all day, so writing about it afterwards has never been all that appealing. That said, I think that a clean computer is a happy computer. Many spyware/virus related issues can be quickly and easily solved with the use of virus protection. For that, I suggest AVG Free (http://www.avg.com/us-en/download) The AVG Free edition provides what I would consider above average virus protection, as well as a link scanner that will display in web search results indicating pages that may or may not be safe; Very helpful in keeping your computer clean. Unless you are downloading copious amounts of illegal materials, I would suggest that AVG is all the protection one would need. I recommend setting AVG to run once or twice per week at a set schedule so you know your computer is always protected. It will also automatically update itself with new virus definitions so you never have to worry about your protection being out of date.

In addition to clearing out viruses, I recommend weekly backups of your irreplaceable documents to an external hard drive. This external drive would be best of being stored in a fireproof box, that is then wrapped in Atom Bomb grade steel and then weekly duplicated to an offsite location just in case your home becomes the target of a mis-guided missile.  Joking aside, I do recommend backing things up to an external usb hard drive at a weekly basis. This way even if your computer takes a dump on you, the stuff that you REALLY need, will still be backed up someplace else.  Programs for the most part can always be re-installed, but self created resumes, pictures, and other personal files may not always be as easy to replace if not backed up. Because I am lazy, I don’t want to handle the backups myself, so I suggest letting that process be automated as well by using a free tool called SyncBack for Windows (http://www.2brightsparks.com/freeware/) You can set it up to run at specific intervals (again, the 1 to 2 times a week rule works well) and you choose exactly what folders to back up and where to throw them. Investing in a 500GB external drive is great for normal PC users because it has plenty of space to back EVERYTHING up. Set it to copy your entire “My Documents” directory and let it go. The first time it runs through, it will most likely take awhile copying all the files. I would just start it before bed, and let it go overnight. After the initial data transfer, all subsequent transfers should be pretty quick only copying over those newly created or newly updated files. On the OSX side of things, I would suggest buying an Iomega external drive as they come with EMC’s Retrospect software (which is great for backing things up), or possibly looking at purchasing the Super Flexible File Synchronizer (http://www.superflexible.com/mac.htm). It offers similar functionality to that of Syncback, but however does carry a cost for the software. Optionally if you are on a newer flavor of OSX, you could try using Time Machine to back up your entire system, however I have for the most part found this to be slight overkill for me.

I don’t like to be overwhelmed with tasks, and neither does anyone else. I will be adding to my list of “New New Resolutions” in the next coming weeks leading up to the end of February where it just becomes too late to create new resolutions. Start the New Year off right by making sure to clean up/back up your computer, because remember: A clean computer is a happy computer.

Kick in Groin

I hate change. Not like doing something different in my life, but the kind that sits in your pocket all the time, rattles when you walk, and eventually is lost. The penny could be one of the most worthless items in the US….literally. I don’t carry change, and normally pay for everything with a credit card for the purpose of never getting change in return. Ya it may sound weird but I don’t care, I just really don’t like it. That being said, I went to get some chips at lunch like normal every other day. I put my dollar in (like I said I hate using/owning change) and selected A4 to get my Cheetos on. Let me preface this next part by saying this vending machine has had it our for me ever since I started working here. As my cheetos start to fall, I hear the change drawer from the vending machine…my change due is $.25, and of course I get 5 nickles. Arrgggg. I spit on the machine, kicked in the glass, and went back to my desk.