Blogger Interface :: Houston is 93rd out of 100 ....

Angriest Places in America | Men's Health
We've discovered that if you want to really piss off an entire city, all you have to do is rank it last among 100 cities and then print the results in a national magazine. Happens every month. But what we don't know is how angry a city might become if we actually name it the "Angriest Town in America." Well, Detroit, go ahead and let us have it: You are officially the most spitting-mad metropolis.

How did we gauge rage? Statistically (and from a safe distance). We calculated the number of aggravated assaults per capita (FBI), the number of people with high blood pressure (CDC), the amount of time spent in traffic during rush hour (Texas Transportation Institute), and the number of anger-management specialists per capita (American Psychological Association).

Most PO'd
100 Detroit, MI
99 Baltimore, MD
98 St. Petersburg, FL
97 Las Vegas, NV
96 Newark, NJ
95 Charleston, WV
94 Dallas, TX
93 Houston, TX
92 Philadelphia, PA
91 Miami, FL
90 Riverside, CA
89 Memphis, TN
88 Oklahoma City, OK
87 Louisville, KY
86 Los Angeles, CA
85 Jersey City, NJ
84 Fort Worth, TX
83 Jacksonville, FL
82 Indianapolis, IN
81 Boston, MA
80 Chicago, IL
79 Orlando, FL
78 New Orleans, LA
77 Stockton, CA
76 Oakland, CA
75 Sacramento, CA
4 Washington, DC
73 St. Louis, MO
72 Phoenix, AZ
71 Baton Rouge, LA
70 San Jose, CA
69 Tampa, FL
68 Aurora, CO
67 El Paso, TX
66 Winston-Salem, NC
65 Birmingham, AL
64 Tucson, AZ
63 Santa Ana, CA
62 Bridgeport, CT
61 Billings, MT
60 Tulsa, OK
59 Manchester, NH
58 New York, NY
57 Lexington, KY
56 Little Rock, AR
55 St. Paul, MN
54 Charlotte, NC
53 San Diego, CA
52 Fresno, CA
51 Atlanta, GA
50 Cleveland, OH
49 Columbus, OH
48 Lubbock, TX
47 San Antonio, TX
46 Plano, TX
45 Richmond, VA
44 Greensboro, NC
43 Providence, RI
42 Albuquerque, NM
41 Denver, CO
40 Austin, TX
39 Kansas City, MO
38 Jackson, MS
37 Bakersfield, CA
36 Milwaukee, WI
35 San Francisco, CA
34 Chesapeake, VA
33 Corpus Christi, TX
32 Nashville, TN
31 Sioux Falls, SD
30 Raleigh, NC
29 Toledo, OH
28 Laredo, TX
27 Cincinnati, OH
26 Buffalo, NY
25 Minneapolis, MN
24 Norfolk, VA
23 Honolulu, HI
22 Wilmington, DE
21 Durham, NC
20 Seattle, WA
19 Des Moines, IA
18 Fort Wayne, IN
17 Pittsburgh, PA
16 Boise, ID
15 Omaha, NE
14 Portland, ME
13 Virginia Beach, VA
12 Portland, OR
11 Columbia, SC
10 Anchorage, AK
9 Reno, NV
8 Wichita, KS
7 Cheyenne, WY
6 Salt Lake City, UT
5 Madison, WI
4 Colorado Springs, CO
3 Fargo, ND
2 Lincoln, NE
1 Burlington, VT

Read more at Men's Health:  http://www.menshealth.com/health/angry-cities#ixzz22dTNPbyP

_____________________________Reference
http://www.menshealth.com/health/angry-cities

MooPig's Tech Coroner :: "FRACKING"

Today's Question from Left Field: Are They Fracking in the Brazos Valley, Texas?
Retrieved by Pat Darnell | Aug 4, 2012 | Bryan TX

[Picture LINK]
Insurance Company Won't Cover Fracking Process | Seneca Daily News: "Nationwide Mutual Insurance Co. has become the first major insurance company to say it won’t cover damage related to a gas drilling process that blasts chemical-laden water deep into the ground.

The Columbus, Ohio-based company’s personal and commercial policies “were not designed to cover” risk from the drilling process, called hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, Nationwide spokeswoman Nancy Smeltzer said Thursday.

The process injects chemically treated water into wells to fracture shale thousands of feet underground and release trapped gas or oil. There are rich shale deposits in parts of Pennsylvania, New York, Ohio, West Virginia and elsewhere."

'via Blog this'
__________________________
Oil business balks at a term it created: ‘fracking’
The same energy industry which created the term “fracking” is now criticizing its use by others.
Energy giants feel the word has a negative sound to it and is being used by environmentalists and others to make them look worse. They now prefer the term from which fracking was derived: “hydraulic fracturing.”
__________________________
Groat, a former Director of the U.S. Geological Survey and professor at the Jackson School of Geosciences at the University of Texas at Austin, also sits on the board of Plains Exploration and Production Company, a Houston-based company that conducts drilling and fracking in Texas and other parts of the country. According to the new report (and a review of the company’s financial reports by Bloomberg) Groat received more than $400,000 from the drilling company last year alone, more than double his salary at the University. And one of the shales examined in Groat’s fracking study is currently being drilled by the company, the report says.
Since 2007, Groat has received over $1.5 million in cash and stock awards from the company, and he currently holds over $1.6 million in company stock, according to the PAI report.
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johnbob
10:37 AM on 6/17/2012
Tell the people around wells near Dallas or people whose home is over the Eagle Ford shale. Fracking cannot be separated from the deep well disposal of used fracking fluids containing unknown dangerous compounds. The deep well disposal of these compounds have absolutely been shown to cause earthquakes.

So dispense with the double-speak. Fracking causes earthquakes.

Whether these earthquakes cause damage or injury is luck. Nevertheless, corporations that create waste liquids that are disposed of by deep well injection should be financially responsible for the damage the induced earthquakes cause, and damage to the ground water that results from their activities..
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Congress and the Department of Energy requested the 240-page report.
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Natural gas and oil companies are expected to begin revealing which chemicals they employ in the drilling process hydraulic fracturing, also known as fracking, in compliance with a new rule of the Texas Railroad Commission.
The companies also must reveal the amounts of water they use in the drilling process, which is widespread in such areas as South Texas’ Eagle Ford Shale play and North Dakota’s Bakken oil field.

The companies still can keep a lid on any “trade secret” formulas for fracking fluids.
Some environmentalists believe fracking compromises an area’s groundwater supply by polluting it with chemicals. Such chemicals are mixed with sand in millions of gallons of water injected into shale formations at high pressure to release trapped oil or gas.
____________________________
Weatherford
2411 Clarks Ln, Bryan, TX 77808
(979) 778-6503

Where: Carrabba Industrial Park
What: Oil & Gas Exploration & Development, Oil Field Service
____________________________
Welcome to FracFocus, the hydraulic fracturing chemical registry website. This website is a joint project of the Ground Water Protection Council and the Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission.

On this site you can search for information about the chemicals used in the hydraulic fracturing of oil and gas wells. You will also find educational materials designed to help you put this information in perspective.

___________________________Reference
http://senecadaily.com/?p=18273#axzz22dKQOot7
http://www.texasoilrigaccidentlawyer.com/tag/oil-rig-accident-lawyer/
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/24/university-of-texas-fracking-study_n_1699391.html?utm_hp_ref=green
http://www.yellowpages.com/bryan-tx/weatherford-fracking
http://www.theeagle.com/article/20120616/BC0105/120619668/-1/bc20/cancer/Genetic-Code-Cracked-for-Most-Common-Pediatric-Brain-Cancer-&slId=11
http://www.texasoilrigaccidentlawyer.com/tag/oil-rig-accident-lawyer/
http://www.texasoilrigaccidentlawyer.com/energy-companies-to-reveal-chemicals-in-fracking-water/
http://wtaw.com/2011/12/13/texas-to-require-disclosure-of-fracking-chemicals/
http://fracfocus.org/
http://8020vision.com/2011/04/17/congress-releases-report-on-toxic-chemicals-used-in-fracking/

Whiskey & Gunpowder Re-Visited

How does US manufacturing get back on its feet?
Get the central bank out of the money monopoly business. Get rid of government backing for unions. Get rid of tariffs and taxes. Let the cost of labor fall and the ease of doing business rise. Manufacturing will trip over itself in its hurry to get back here.
What is a reasonable corporate tax rate? 25%?
Zero. The same goes for the personal income tax rate.

What types of jobs are sustainable?
None. The market eventually destroys all jobs as it spurs innovation and creates new ones. Over time the need for human labor keeps dropping while the standard of living goes up. You want "sustainable jobs"? Go to a command economy and become a land serf. If you want progress, then join us in the free market and learn to adapt as old jobs die and new ones are created.

What are reasonable farm subsidies and when should they be available?
None and never. Subsidy causes distortion.
Subsidies kept food prices high during economic depression. They benefit corporate mega-farming and not the moms and pops the general public seem to think subsidy helps.
What should happen when Wall Street or banks shirk their fiduciary responsibilities? How about the Iranian solution?
The same thing that happens when you or I shirk our fiduciary responsibilities. We lose credit standing and reputation and bear the economic brunt of our missteps when people voluntarily stop doing business with us.
Do we bail out banks and corporations and make them whole or do we make individuals whole: where is the money better spent for the overall economy?
Neither. The money is best spent by individuals for what they want. Bailouts are stealing (taxing) from one set to bail out another set. It's morally wrong to steal (even when it's called "taxation") and it's economically distorting and ultimately destructive to bail out one favored group at the expense of another.
State and federal infrastructure priorities. Bridges, then roads, then water system, then power systems.
Let the market build the bridges, roads, etc. The producers will be guided by consumer demand for these things. "Infrastructure" isn't a magical area where the market stops working and centralized, politically-directed production works better.
What are the goals for US education? Is affordable college education important? Does college training level the employment playing field?
The goal of U.S. education is to indoctrinate impressionable minds with pro-government propaganda. "Education" under the state is a huge waste of resources.
In fact, true learning is a self-directed activity that the market is making ever cheaper (especially thanks the Internet). Schooling, however, is what the state does and the collectivized schooling under the state is expensive and wasteful.
You want something affordable and useful? Let the market in. Let teachers and schools compete. Let people pick the path of learning that suits them instead of the one-size-fits-all method of the state.
I'm for a strong military but not spending half of the world total for military spending. What is a reasonable readiness cost?
I'm not for a strong military. Strong militaries are like children with hammers. Everything looks like a nail. Strong militaries tend to blunder around the globe, inducing multiple conflicts and body counts. They tend to cause blowback.
Readiness cost approaches zero when you stop stirring up trouble.
How many overseas military bases should the US have? Is 700 too many?
Zero. You may as well ask how many overseas bases China, or Iran, or France or Lichtenstein should have.
How many US based military installations should we have? Is 4500 too many? (90 per state average!)
I'm no fan of the U.S., but I love the idea of America. No one wants to hear that there should be no standing army...but there should be no standing army. So ideally none, but since that's too crazy for most people, let's just pick a round number and say 10% of what currently exists.
Healthcare costs: what is reasonable percent of yearly income? 8%-10%-12%.
That's like asking what a reasonable food or clothing or electronics costs should be. It's really up to the individual. And if the government weren't involved in providing medical care, then it would be a lot cheaper.
Your health starts with your habits. Medical care shouldn't be more expensive or daunting than car maintenance. For catastrophic injury, one should have insurance (which would also be cheaper in a truly free market) just as one would for one's car. But even that is an individual choice.
Entitlement programs for aging population are costing more and more so need to cut or put more resources here. How? Develop plan A, plan B and plan C.
Those entitlements shouldn't have been there in the first place. Now we have generations of people who can't live without them. Yet these programs were all unsustainable Ponzi schemes from the get-go. (Yes, that includes Medicare and Medicaid as well as Social "Security".)

There is no easy way out. The can will be kicked down the road till quality of life inevitably declines. The market will eventually drag quality of life back up. But first people will have to learn -- painfully -- that government cannot improve that quality.