Month: April 2013

Does Stretching Do You Any Good?

by Patrick Appel

Maybe not:

Just why stretching hampers performance is not fully understood, although the authors of both of the new studies write that they suspect the problem is in part that stretching does exactly what we expect it to do. It loosens muscles and their accompanying tendons. But in the process, it makes them less able to store energy and spring into action … Of course, the new studies’ findings primarily apply to people participating in events that require strength and explosive power, more so than endurance. But “some research speaks in favor” of static stretching impairing performance in distance running and cycling, [Dr. Goran Markovic, a professor of kinesiology at the University of Zagreb] said.

Healthy Fast Food

by Patrick Appel

Bittman taste-tests it:

Veggie Grill, Lyfe Kitchen, Tender Greens and others have solved the challenge of bringing formerly upscale, plant-based foods to more of a mass audience. But the industry seems to be focused on a niche group that you might call the health-aware sector of the population. (If you’re reading this article, you’re probably in it.) Whole Foods has proved that you can build a publicly traded business, with $16 billion in market capitalization, by appealing to this niche. But fast food is, at its core, a class issue. Many people rely on that Tendercrisp because they need to, and our country’s fast-food problem won’t be solved — no matter how much innovation in vegan options or high-tech ovens — until the prices come down and this niche sector is no longer niche.

Can Fracking Be Green?

by Patrick Appel

Fracking Leaks

Brad Plumer captions the above chart, from a World Resources Institute report on fracking:

What does this chart show? The red line is WRI’s best current estimate of greenhouse-gas emissions (including methane) from all natural gas activities. The blue line shows WRI’s estimate of future emissions after recently proposed air-pollution regulations at fracking wells take effect. (The steps that drillers will have to take to reduce volatile organic compounds from these wells will also curb methane leaks.)

The purple line, meanwhile, shows estimated future emissions if the EPA and state agencies required just three new technologies throughout the natural-gas infrastructure: plunger lift systems, leak detection and repair, and low-bleed pneumatic devices. And, with an additional five technologies, the country could get down below hoped-for 1 percent methane leakage rate. That’s the green line.

The Senate’s Evolution On Marriage Equality, Ctd

by Chas Danner

It’s not slowing down yet: two conservative Democratic senators, Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota and Joe Donnelly of Indiana, just came out for marriage equality. Jon Chait and Dan Amira discuss the Democratic senators who have yet to voice their support for marriage equality:

Dan: Well, Jon, it’s been a crazy month, but today, after Joe Donnelly and Heidi Heitkamp dropped out of the tournament, we’re down to the Final Four: Mark Pryor, Joe Manchin, Tim Johnson, and Mary Landrieu. The moderate powerhouses are the only remaining Democratic senators who haven’t come out in support of gay marriage — but only one can be the last Democratic senator not to support gay marriage. Let’s take a look at the field. Landrieu is an interesting case, don’t you think? You could argue she should have been knocked out last week.

Jon: I’m going to get a lot of heat from Landrieu’s fan base, but I’ll just say it: She does not belong in this tournament. She said last Thursday, “The people of Louisiana have made clear that marriage in our state is restricted to one man and one woman. While my personal views have evolved, I will support the outcome of Louisiana’s recent vote.” She has already dropped the e-word. We’re seeding her a distant No. 4.

The Fracking Divide, Ctd

by Doug Allen

A reader corrects me on the EPA’s ability to regulate fracking:

Your desire to “see the EPA start looking into ways to eliminate leakages where it is “technologically and economically feasible,” whether below the surface or above” is a nice thought, but not actually legal.  Under the Energy Policy Act of 2005, Congress passed the “Halliburton Loophole,” which prohibits the federal agencies in charge of environmental protection from regulating hydraulic fracturing under any of the major environmental statutes – the Clean Water Act, the Clean Air Act, the Safe Water Drinking Act, the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, etc.  So while EPA has the authority to commission studies on health impacts, such as it is currently undertaking, that is about as far as its legal authority extends.  In order to do anything further, let alone “eliminate leakages,” it would need Congress to close the loophole and extend authority to regulate in this area.

Duly noted. I’ll amend my desire to have Congress first close the loophole (which as far as I can tell is a horrible piece of special interest legislation) and then have the EPA do everything possible to eliminate leakages. Another reader highlights fracking’s water usage:

Fracking uses A LOT of water. Colorado’s snow pack currently stands at less than 73% of average and it is where the majority of the Front Range’s (Denver, Boulder, Loveland, Fort Collins, Colorado Springs, etc) water comes from. Local farmers can usual rent water for around $35 an acre foot. Some people are already getting quotes of over $200 an acre foot for the upcoming summer. Fracking companies have money to burn and the local farmers don’t. Last summer set records for sustained high temperatures. They are forecasting more of the same this summer. It’s going to get ugly.

Just for some context on my energy background, my views on natural gas are heavily informed by my past work as an energy consultant in California, working primarily on long-term resource planning for the electricity sector.

One of the first things I learned from my experience working with regulators, utilities, energy companies, and stakeholders was that there are no easy solutions. Every proposed solution has its advocates and opponents, and the “best” energy future is highly dependent on what you find important. People who focus on cost will reach a different conclusion than those who focus on reducing emissions, who will reach a different conclusion than those who are opposed to big transmission lines traversing the state. My opinion of natural gas is based on my belief that it provides the best balance between the various concerns I’ve heard. But there are plenty of arguments that can be made for alternatives.

Is It Time To Retire Romeo And Juliet?

by Brendan James

Commenting on a new adaptation, Alyssa Rosenberg complains that the play “hasn’t aged well”:

[T]he vision of Romeo and Juliet’s deaths uniting their families is an adolescent fantasy of death solving all problems, a “won’t they miss me when I’m gone” pout. There’s a reason that, in the best modern riff on Romeo and Juliet, West Side Story, Maria lives after Tony’s death to shame the Sharks and the Jets, her survival a seal on the truce between them. Dying is easy. Living to survive the consequences of your actions and to do the actual work of reconciliation is the hard part.

Anna Williams suggests the exploration of “deeply childish love” is the point of the play:

The play’s criticism of the lovers becomes explicit in the speeches of Friar Laurence, who considers their relationship shallow, hasty, and immoderate. Amazed at the news that Romeo has suddenly stopped loving Rosaline and fallen in love with Juliet, the friar concludes that “young men’s love then lies / Not truly in their hearts, but in their eyes.” (Just as Rosenberg says, “Romeo’s age isn’t specified in the play, but the quickness with which he throws over a former flame for Juliet doesn’t suggest a particularly mature man.”) A love that lies more in the eyes than in the heart, in the friar’s analogy, is deficient.

The rapid progress of the lovers’ relationship worries the friar, too: “Wisely and slow, they stumble that run fast,” he cautions the eager Romeo. Although Juliet calls their love “too rash, too unadvised, too sudden” the night that she meets Romeo, she does not actually slow their courtship, as they marry the very next day. We are, in Rosenberg’s phrase, watching them “behave like early teenagers.”

I agree with Alyssa that most modern-dress productions don’t come off well—I haven’t been the same since sweating through a bleak, grey staging at Edinburgh Festival a few years back. But is the play itself really “outdated?” Probably not until self-destructive love is out of our system. In the meantime it seems odd to fault Shakespeare for the relatively recent butcherings of a drama that has been staged for roughly 400 years.

A Terminal Career Path

by Brendan James

Rebecca Shuman declares that “the tenure track literature professorship is extinct,” and urges all aspiring grad students to turn back while they still can:

Other well-meaning academics have already attempted to warn you, the best-known screed in this subgenre being William Pannapacker’s “Graduate School in the Humanities? Just Don’t Go.” But this convinced no one. It certainly didn’t convince me! Why? Because Pannapacker is a tenured professor. He pulled it off, so why can’t you? After all, someone has to get these jobs.

Well, someone also has to not die from small-cell lung cancer to give the disease its 6 percent survival rate, but would you smoke four packs a day with the specific intention of being in that 6 percent? No, because that’s stupid. Well, tenure-track positions in my field have about 150 applicants each. Multiply that 0.6 percent chance of getting any given job by the 10 or so appropriate positions in the entire world, and you have about that same 6 percent chance of “success.” If you wouldn’t bet your life on such ludicrous odds, then why would you bet your livelihood?

Making Telework Work

by Doug Allen

Jeff Robbins, founder and CEO of Lullabot, defends Marissa Meyer’s ban on telecommuting. His rule of thumb is that a “conventional company with several remote employees is a company with several alienated employees”:

My feeling is that most conventional co-located companies simply don’t know how to manage, and more importantly, how to include their remote workforce. … This discussion isn’t all about productivity. It’s also about culture, relationships (both romantic and platonic), understanding office politics, in-jokes, birthday parties, and general inclusion. Without these things, a company’s work-at-home staff won’t feel like they’re part of the team. … Feeling alienated sucks. These employees can become myopic, focusing only on the work that comes to them via email and nothing else.

He explains how they maintain the office camaraderie despite their “distributed” workforce:

[I]t’s built into our DNA to avoid remote worker alienation. We bend over backwards to make our team feel connected and involved in the company. Being a good proactive communicator is a requirement for any job at Lullabot. And our company’s infrastructure is built around facilitating many different types of communication. We can easily and quickly see who’s working at any given moment. We can easily get quick answers from anyone on the team whether they’re online or off. We can post questions company-wide for discussion. We spend a lot of time on conference calls, but people are often multitasking and we rarely feel like a meeting was unproductive.

Previous Dish on working from home here, here and here.