I received the latest issue of Bloomberg Businessweek this Saturday and I could not have been happier.
Such a great antidote for Valentine’s Day Blues.
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Cover of Bloomberg Businessweek, 14 February 2011.
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After reading the well-written article, “Cheating Incorporated”, still aghast and shaking from the get-go by the tagline “Life is short. Have an affair”, I went and checked out the front page of the website, and the front page only. I swear. There is NO wink wink this time.
I don’t know what to say. I feel like crying but not the self-pitying kind wont to happen on Valentine’s Day. No. I feel like crying because I am so tired. I feel besieged.
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"Affairs Guaranteed"
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Well, I guess now we know what many people would be doing the day AFTER Valentine’s Day…
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Now we know what people do the day AFTER...
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I am rather intrigued by this chart really, what would your hypothesis be for the reasons for the spikes?
Our trip to St. Pete Beach, and especially North Beach at Fort De Soto was filled with moments of wonders:
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White sandy beaches, calm and clear water, massive expanse of azure that makes one understand what it means to not be able to tell the ocean from the sky, the elegant flight of Brown Pelicans, and the delight of coming face to face with the living ocean: oysters, sea urchins, sea snails, mollusks inside sea shells, hermit crabs, and schools of fish that swim right next to you, by your feet.
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Azure paradise
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And sting rays. They hang around at the sandy bottom of the shallow ocean water on North Beach.
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httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CbLeIQrcyNA
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And Brown Pelicans. Did I mention the Brown Pelicans yet? There were three of them flying over the hotel and in front of our room every single day, at dusk. (Sorry about the quality: I rushed out to the balcony with my phone to catch this picture)
Brown Pelicans are endangered even more because of the oil spill
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Every time I saw them, I was reminded by the NPR interview with an environmentalist that I happened to hear the day before our trip: how Brown Pelicans are one of the animals that may experience the worst impact since they just came off the endangered species list in November, after 40 fucking years of struggling for survival. Every time I watched their graceful dive into the ocean, I felt like crying.
I wanted to say, I am so sorry.
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Oiled Brown Pelican being cleaned by IBRRC
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The video below is shot by an amateur videographer flying over the scene of the oil spill: it shows the extent of the damage is much worse than what BP has led the public to believe. My apology first:
I believe it’s important we all see this even though I am not sure what good it’ll do.
Helplessness.
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I don’t like to feel helpless because that feeling will soon degenerate into hopelessness. How about a good dose of anger? How about this headline?
On Monday, BP said it spent $350 million in the first 20 days of the spill response, about $17.5 million a day. It has paid 295 of the 4,700 claims received, for a total of $3.5 million. By contrast, in the first quarter of the year, the London-based oil giant’s profits averaged $93 million a day.
The amount of oil leaking into the Gulf of Mexico has been estimated at 5,000 to 25,000 barrels a day. In the first quarter, BP produced 2.5 million barrels of crude oil a day worldwide — and it received $71.86 for every barrel.
At $93 million a day in profits, BP makes $350 million in about 3.8 days. The Washington Post noted that Exxon, through a decision by the Supreme Court, was able to pay only $507.5 million of the original $5 billion in punitive damages that it had been assessed for the 1989 Valdez disaster.
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Or how about a screenshot of HuffPost when I opened it up this morning?
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"Not my fault!" and naturally "I am not a crook!"
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GREED.
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Once again, my dear readers, I apologize: I don’t know what good this ranting will do, but it makes me feel much better. Even if just for a short while.
