US Coal Mining in the 21st Century

Summary of recent mining accidents:

On April 5th 29 West Virginia miners died in an explosion at the Upper Big Branch Coal Mine owned by Massey Energy. Some of the families of the deceased have filed or plan to file wrongful death suits and NPR is reporting rumors that Massey has offered some of the families a 3 million dollar settlement. Regardless of lawsuits or settlements the families will receive the following death benefits:

• health insurance coverage for a period of 20 years (or life in some cases)
• life insurance payout five times the annual salary of the miner, which according to Massey's website averages $52,000 a year --> $52,000 * 5 = $260,000 lump sum insurance payout
• college tuition for children
• weekly paychecks until widows remarry (I haven't heard anything about common law marriages, civil unions, or same-sex partners, likely because it's irrelevant in this situation)

On April 28th 2 Kentucky miners died in a roof collapse at the ... Mine owned by ... . Instances of citations and orders to shut down sections of the mine or equipment due to safety concerns have surfaced as an investigation into the accident is about to commence.

My Perspective:

Many people do not realize that coal mining is a prevalent industry in the United States. The West Virginia and Kentucky Mines that have been in the news represent only 2 of the 26 states in this country in which people are working in coal mines. The dangerous reality of this profession is not lost on many foreign countries where they don't have the comparable access to technological advances and the government regulation that make these accidents less frequent.

The reach and importance of coal mining extends far beyond that of a History Channel documentary. According to U.S. Energy Information Administration, "93% of coal in the U.S. is used for generating electricity". (Note that this is not the same as if they said coal from the U.S. since we both export and import coal, but that's getting off topic for this post) The energy industry is immense and highly profitable. Considering the benefits package and rumored settlement offered to the mine worker's families Massey Energy is looking at almost 90 million dollars in damage control. If and when a family accepts a settlement offer they would be releasing Massey Energy from all liability and giving up their right to follow through or file a wrongful death or any other suit related to the accident. A wrongful death suit with a ruling in favor of the mine worker's family could result in punitive damages, rather Massey would have to pay the families as punishment for negligence, action, or the failure to act on their part that contributed to the accident.

The fact that Massey can afford damage control that initially adds up to about 90 million dollars, not including public relations costs or the cost of controlling the ramifications of Massey's almost $14 dollar stock value decrease since the beginning of this month, is disconcerting. Looking at that dollar amount as the tip of the iceberg that's the coal industry's financial reserve, I'm left thinking about the dollar signs I can't see below the surface, money used to lobby Congress and further their own economic interests at the express of technological and environmental improvements, and wondering whether that money would be better spent elsewhere.

The fact that coal is a nonrenewable energy source, that 93% of coal in the U.S. is used to generate electricity, and that people risk their lives on a daily basis globally in order to procure coal from mines definitely makes me think twice about reducing my own energy consumption until the majority of energy use in the U.S. is produced by safe and renewable energy sources.

I'd love to see research data on deaths per energy unit for all energy sources.

KnifinAround is my boyfriend

and this is his video

Freaks and Geeks, Firefly, Charles in Charge! and some SCOTUS news

United Student Aid Funds v. Espinosa, lower court affirmed

If you ain't no punk HOLLA WE WANT prePRENUPT...???

No that's not a typo, I'm talking about the pre-prenuptial, aka the dating prenupt, an agreement that outlines the what-ifs in the event that a couple's relationship disintegrates. I can understand having an agreement like this if you're cohabitating that outlines who will retain the apartment lease and how it's contents will be divided, but there are couples who don't live together who are making these agreements!

Legally this is an interesting concept, especially considering many couples, for financial or other reasons, decide to live together before getting married or completely forgo marriage all together. The prenuptial agreement is a contract that a couple enters into before marriage or a civil union that provides the terms of the legal dissolution of the relationship - custody, division of property, division of financial assets, financial consequences for infidelity. Postnuptial agreements are the same as prenupts in content only they are made after a couple is already married or has entered into a civil union. Neither of these agreements can include sexual provisions. Those type of agreements are called prostitution and prostitution is illegal.

So are pre-prenupts ridiculous?
IF you're not living together or about to move in together, you're probably jumping the gun, and I wish you a happy and painless break-up because you're on the fast track to splitsville.
On the other hand, IF you are living together or about to move in together I'm all for hashing out the what-if's and making sure that you're both on the same page and maybe even documenting the most important details. That being said...

A pre-prenupt should not include:

• Who will keep future pets you might acquire and how you'll share the cost
• What if you end up being allergic to the pet and now you have to pay for half the food and litter and vet bills for an animal that you never see that lives with your ex and possibly your ex's new fling? Not ideal so leave it out of the contract, because that's what a pre-prenupt is, a legal binding contract!
• Who will do what chores around your home
• Unless one person doesn't work or pay rent and they are supposed to clean or fix certain things in lieu of a monthly check
• Sexual requirements
• This is a pre-prenupt not a prostitution agreement
• Girls and Guys Night Out Rules
• If you need to make a written agreement concerning these nights out and the details you are probably in an unhealthy controlling relationship
• Respecting feelings and other mushy stuff
• There is no legal remedy for hurt feelings or not feeling like you're being listened to or that your emotional needs are being met

A romantic relationship should always be one of compromise that evolves over time as the relationship matures and thus only those things that are not subject to changes over time and won't evolve with the relationship should be included in a pre-prenupt:

• Who will retain the lease/apartment and what happens to each person's share of the deposit (and last month's rent if it was paid upfront)
• How furniture and the content of the apartment will be divided
• Especially those big ticket items you split the cost of when you furnished the place
• Whether infidelity changes any of these provisions
• I'd put an exception clause that if the relationship dissolves due to the other party's infidelity then the non-offending party gets to keep all the furniture, including the big ticket items that you split the cost of. Do you really want to sleep in the bed that you shared with the person who cheated on you? Probably not, but do you want to sell it and use that money to spend the night out with your friends or buying that new whatever you've been coveting? Yes!!! Or maybe you're going to need a deposit for a new place.

So all in all I think that the pre-prenupt is a little bit ridiculous and is a huge red flag in certain circumstances, but all in all I think that it's a good way to protect yourself in a world where you're very likely to live with a partner before you're legally bound to that person only when used reasonably and appropriately.

Further reading: NY POST article

Shopping for Sperm on Craigslist

Real and Ridiculous Children's Books

My Beautiful Mommy 

guides children through Mommy's plastic surgery and healing process in a friendly, nonthreatening way while simultaneously undermining their self-esteem and teaching them that their mother is an icky bug that needs to go into a cocoon (of post-op drug induced haze) so they can emerge a beautiful butterfly (with the personality of a nasty cashmere sweater eating moth).

 

 

I Wish Daddy Didn't Drink So Much

but he does so let's relive the trauma of your young life during story time!

My Big Sister Takes Drugs

 to numb the pain of being a ginger

 

Nobody Wants a Nuclear War

For children ages 4 to 8 years and addresses your child's fear of nuclear war

(Throwback to 1986 and the Cold War)

Icelandic Glacial? YES PLEASE!

As a follow up to my previous post "Fiji Water? NO THANK YOU" I thought it would be prudent to first divulge which bottled waters are glorified tap water and second share with every one the brand of water that has become my vice, Icelandic Glacial.

I. The true origins of bottled water

Dasani

"purified water enhanced with minerals for a pure, fresh taste"

(filtered tap water + minerals)

Aquafina

"pure water, perfect taste"

(filtered tap water from a PWS - Public Water Source)

Nestle Pure Life

"purified water enhanced with minerals for taste"

(filtered tap water + minerals)

TAP'D NY

This water unabashedly markets itself as NYC tap water,

retails for about $1.50,

and I'm totally going to buy is asap

and drink it when I'm feeling homesick

b/c NYC has the best water ever!

II. Drinking Icelandic Glacial will make you smarter, prettier, thinner, & sing like Björk!

Ok, so maybe you won't sing like Bjork but Miss World 2005 thinks you should drink it and so do I.

Here's why:

1.  The water comes from a naturally replenishing source = no resources are being depleted.
2. The water is so pure that it's 100% clear when you freeze it, this is a good thing. That's because there are no heavy metals and a very low mineral content, 68 parts per Million!
3. Icelandic Glacial has a pH level of 8.4 while the average bottled water that you'd get out of a vending machine (think Dasani, Aquafina) has a pH level of around 4 (on a scale of 1-acidic to 14-alkaline). The pH level in a healthy human should be around 7.35 (just above neutral) and the EPA recommends that public water systems maintain pH levels of between 6.5 and 8.5 to prevent cosmetic effects (such as skin or tooth discoloration) or aesthetic effects (such as taste, odor, or color).
4.  The bottle is 100% recyclable, made from 75% recycled materials, and they company is committed to finding ways to reduce packaging materials.
5. Icelandic Glacial carries the "CarbonNeutral" stamp of approval. This means that the company and product leaves a net-zero carbon footprint!
6. Most importantly: Iceland has had 3 Miss World winners and 7 winners of The World's Strongest Man since 1985, and Icelanders have the highest life expectancy in world - obviously it's b/c of the water!
7. It's delish!

You can learn more about Icelandic Glacial at their website or you could watch these fab videos:

It's simple:

1. Drink Icelandic Glacial Water

2. Look as young as Björk when you're 44 years old

3. Win World's Strongest Man Competition like Jón Páll Sigmarsson

(...and get small boy as trophy?)

 

Fiji Water? NO THANK YOU!

In the wake of last year's very public Fiji Water v. Mother Jones fight (see Mother Jones Bashes Fiji Water followed by Fiji Water Responds and then read the first comment under Fiji's response posted by Clara Jeffery) I stopped drinking Fiji Water. Fiji Water then increased their "Every Drop is Green" campaign.

This unbiased video of the Democracy Now interview with Anna Lenzer, investigative journalist and author of the above referenced Mother Jones article "Spin the Bottle", gives a great summary of the controversy for those that want to skip the reading. Fiji Water was invited to be interviewed as well but declined. There is also factual commentary on other brands of bottled water.

Now, some might say "Hey Girly, this is old news!" Obviously I know this and so should you since the first thing I said was that this controversy occurred last year! So why am I bringing this up again?
 As part of the damage control after the Mother Jones expose Fiji Water increased it's efforts to make contributions to society. It's no coincidence that shortly after it was made known to the public/consumers that just miles away from the bottling plant in Fiji there were communities without clean water, Fiji Water donated the means to install water filters in these local communities by partnering with another organization. Would they have done this had the public eye not been upon them? I don't believe they would.
Fiji Water's blog, started in 2008, commences with a green focus but mostly gravitates towards topics that interest their target market and can be linked with their brand. Pre-controversy the posts read like something off of The New York Post's Page 6 - it's a who's who of who's drinking Fiji Water against a backdrop of food, wine, fashion, music, politics, sports, and A-list events. It's not until after the controversy that Fiji Water seems to come back with unprecedented fervor and a change in tone that moves away from sporadic what you can do as an individual towards what Fiji Water is doing for the communities of Fiji and beyond.
Recently, Fiji Water has donated 136,000 liters of water to victims of the earthquake in Haiti and I'm sure that they are going to make sure every one knows. What you might be surprised to learn is that one month ago Fiji was struck by Cyclone Mick. Although the effects of Cyclone Mick weren't nearly as devastatingly grande as the effects of Haiti's earthquake the disaster costs total almost 39 million USD raising the total amount of natural disaster costs for the year to an excess of 200 million USD, due to earlier flooding, according to the Fiji Times Online. Fiji Water, who claims to be investmented in the well-being of the Fijian community, made no mention of the natural disaster on their blog and it appears that they also failed to make any contribution to relief efforts. They have not donated water or helped to restore electricity to the nearly 50,000 Fijians effected by the cyclone.
Is it too pessimistic to think that Fiji Water ignored the Fijian community in the wake of Cyclone Mick because the event failed to make national headlines?

So when you hear that Fiji Water has done something positive in the world, just remember to take it with a grain of salt and ask yourself why this cause and why now.

Girly's Recommended Reading

Start off the New Year by

Elevating your Global Consciousness!

A Christmas present from my boyfriend,

this book should be on the reading list for every man, woman, & appropriately aged youth:

Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide

Check out the author's website, which I promise you is not a shameless plug for the book.

http://www.halftheskymovement.org/

You can also follow one of the authors on Twitter

http://twitter.com/NickKristof

While we're at it...

Follow Suze Orman on Twitter as well
http://twitter.com/SuzeOrmanShow
I absolutely adore her and she actually answers every tweet directed @ her!

She also has a new book that I absolutely plan on reading as soon as my mother finishes it.

Women & Money: Owning the Power to Control your Destiny

(also available at costco for $5.99)

The Dad Effect

Interesting article and an addendum to The Girl Effect Post

Men are vital to the well-being of Women and should be Included as an Integral Part of the Solution to Global Women's Issues because Humanitarian Issues Have No Gender!

Early Puberty: The Dad Effect

By Darby Saxbe

A girl still playing with dolls while going through puberty? Alarming, yes, but it's also a scenario that's happening more and more frequently. According to a recent report, in the United States breasts start developing at an average age of 10 for white girls and 9 for black girls, and before 8 in many; menstruation occurs around age 12. More surprising, perhaps, is that across several studies, researchers are finding that one factor accelerating pubertal onset is a father's absence. Women whose parents separated before they reached the age of 6, for example, were nearly twice as likely to report younger-than-average menstruation as those who grew up with both a mother and father at home.

What might explain these findings? We know that the age of menses is at least partly genetic. But higher body fat is also believed to hasten puberty—and girls raised by single mothers, often struggling financially, may have less healthy diets. Moreover, in many animals, exposure to the sex pheromones of a genetically related older male (such as a father) suppresses a young female's pubertal development—probably due to an evolutionary adaptation to prevent inbreeding. Conversely, the presence of an unrelated male tends to speed up maturation. A study of more than 1,100 girls suggested this might also be true in humans. Those with stepfathers in the household matured faster than those without. And the younger the girl when her biological father left home, the earlier she began to menstruate. In terms of how much earlier, the actual effect was fairly small: Girls without fathers at home began to menstruate four to five months before those who lived with both parents. But considering that early pubertal development is associated with a host of negative outcomes—teenage sexual activity and pregnancy, substance abuse, depression, anxiety, poorer performance in school—"small effects," says University of London professor Jay Belsky, PhD, a leading child development specialist, "can have big implications."