7/16/2008

Mmmph….*Snort*….Bwaaaa, Ha Ha Ha….

Uncle AndrewUncle Andrew
Filed under: @ 10:48 am

Another one from Gavin, though I’d seen it elsewhere as well. Gotta go check it out. From the fertile, febrile imagination of Joss Whedon

Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog

One More Reason Why Radio Beats Print Media

Uncle AndrewUncle Andrew
Filed under: @ 9:00 am

I’ve mentioned before how little I care for newspapers. Not the writing itself, but the medium: I shouldn’t have to get my hands filthy just to get my morning news. Mostly I get my news from the radio, and today I got another example of why this medium is not only less messy, but often more fun.

I was listening to a Morning Edition article about the issue of off-shore oil exploration and how the Presidential candidates will have to deal with it. Personally, I’m not sold either way on this topic. Off-shore oil platforms have a safety record that seems comparable to that of oil tankers—200,000 gallons of oil lost in the oft-cited 1969 Santa Barbara oil platform rupture versus 10.8 million gallons from the Exxon Valdez—and performing the off-shore extraction under strict government regulation here rather than off the coast of Nigeria might very well improve that record dramatically. And personally, I don’t think that their presence on the horizon of any given coastline is such a monstrous detriment to the esthetic of the area. Certainly no more than one of those awesome off-shore wind farms that are gaining in popularity, and I would approve one of those off my coast in a heartbeat. On the other hand, the total petroleum to be gained from such a venture is in all likelihood quite low, so this is absolutely no solution to the greater problem of our dependence on a finite, environmentally hazardous energy source. I hate wasting time bickering over the latest and greatest aspirin tablet when what we really need is a big ol’ ampule of Interferon.

Anyway, none of that has much to do with the point of this entry. The real reason I wanted to jot this down had to do with the difference between listening to a person’s voice and reading printed words on a page. At one point in the story, we heard encouraging words about off-shore oil extraction from Scott Smith, vice president of the energy engineering and construction company Black and Veatch.

After I got out of the tub I had to go look the article up online, because to the uninitiated ear, the name of Mr. Smith’s company sounded for all the world like “blackened beach”.

See, this kind of thing just doesn’t happen with newspapers. I wouldn’t trade that experience for all the smudgy fingertips in the world. 😆


All portions of this site are © Andrew Lenzer, all rights reserved, unless otherwise noted.