What bothers me still about Seattle?

I've been living in Seattle for a decade now. I have grown to really like Seattle and the pacific northwest, more generally. However, I was reminded this past week of a few things that I don't like about Seattle. The following is a list of stuff that bothers me about Seattle:

  • Matzah ball soup -- there's no good place to get this soup. period.
  • Swimming pools -- I've struggled to find a world class swim center any where near Seattle. And federal way is not close enough to Seattle to make swimming there practical. 
  • Basketball -- losing the sonics sucked. I grew up watching Larry Bird, Kevin McHale, and Robert Parish and the Boston Celtics. Professional sports seemed to be lacking. The Sounders are great! But, they don't play basketball.
  • Traffic -- and the lack of traffic solutions. Why can't we make a friggin' decision about the 520 bridge and the viaduct. 
  • Public access to the water -- I just got back from Vancouver. Why we allowed lake washington and lake union to be private spaces without making the first 100 feet of access more public was a mistake. Just imagine this city if each body of water were like Green lake!
  • Sun in the winter -- I still need more sun than I get in the winter. It's not the rain that bothers me...it's the lack of sun.  That said, this winter was great!

The connection between economic and environment fuck ups

Forgive me for the expletives but I heard a presentation today about the state of the environment.  Wow. I don't know what to say other than we're fucked.

The interesting thing about the presentation is that the similarities between today's economic crisis / disaster and the upcoming environmental disaster.  The foundation of today's economic crisis were seen by some many years ago but we as a human race aren't able to do anything about it until imminent danger is upon us.  In the presentation, they talked about how we as humans don't act because climate change is:

  • invisible
  • with complex causality
  • caused by all of us (as opposed to someone else)
  • unpredictable and inderect impacts
  • unprecedented (no real history for it)

  • drawn out (as opposed to immediate

Doesn't most of that list look like it may also apply to the economic crisis about 2 years ago?

US News and world report: Study of Chemical in Plastic Bottles Raises Alarm

Posted April 16, 2008

Bisphenol A (BPA), a compound in hard, clear polycarbonate plastics, is getting official scrutiny—and things are looking less than rosy for the controversial chemical. The U.S. government's National Toxicology Program yesterday agreed with a scientific panel that recently expressed concern about physiological changes that occur in people when they ingest BPA that has leached from plastics into their food. The Canadian government is even considering declaring the chemical toxic, reports today's New York Times. This could set the stage for banning it from plastic baby bottles, water bottles, and food containers. At the very least, some people will be even more eager to buy foods and beverages in BPA-free containers.