DEBRIS.COMgood for a laugh, or possibly an aneurysm

San Francisco hosted an anti-war demonstration on Saturday. I was suspicious and disheartened that the San Francisco Chronicle reported the crowd size at “tens of thousands of people”. See also the headline: Huge protests for peace / Tens of thousands in S.F. demand Bush abandon war plans

Within the latter article, two more estimates are given:

The protest’s organizers, an umbrella coalition called International ANSWER, or Act Now to Stop War & End Racism, estimated the crowd at 200,000. Police put the number at 55,000.

Here is the report from A.N.S.W.E.R: 200,000 March in San Francisco. I understand that it is in the organizer’s best interests to overestimate attendance. But I don’t understand why it’s in the Chronicle’s best interests to underestimate it.

Today the SFPD realized their numbers were impossibly low: Protest numbers don’t add up / Police now say 150,000 safe guess. This makes the Chronicle’s earlier headline even more irresponsible and inaccurate. Kudos to the SFPD for admitting their mistake. Kudos to the Chron for publishing the SFPD’s recount. But I’d still like to see them publish a recant.

In other Peace Rally news, here’s the Chron’s Peace Rally Photo Gallery.

Here are aerial photos (with yet-another crowd-size estimate over 100,000).

Here is a gallery of rally photos taken by Bim Lipp, a participant who according to the Chronicle’s reporting could not possibly have been in San Francisco that day, because at least “tens of thousands” of participants coming from less far away had already arrived.

Jon Carroll: The American empire is beginning to die.

In completely related news, Americans buy SUVs to be safe, even though SUVs are capable of having accidents even without hitting anything. See the Frontline report, Rollover. (Soundbite: It’s a myth that SUVs are safer than cars. People in SUVs die just as often as people in cars; they just die differently. They are more likely to die in rollovers, and they are much more likely to kill other people.)

And still more: the American Journal for Public Health announces a study that concludes that restaurant portion sizes have grown over the past 20 years “in parallel with increasing body weights”. Here is the abstract: The Contribution of Expanding Portion Sizes to the US Obesity Epidemic.

Like Jon Carroll said, denial is the national creed. Driving your armored vehicle to the local burger joint for a super-sized dose of salted fat won’t kill you, and besides, you had a really hard day! If any of this was unsafe, people couldn’t sell it, right?

(Please excuse my sarcasm. I really do think the world is coming to an end.)

Many U.S. states maintain their own “Do Not Call” lists, which telemarketers are forced (by law, and often by threat of fine) to heed. If you live in any of the following states, you can opt OUT of telemarketing calls: Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Wyoming

Some states have restrictions that are of interest, whether or not they maintain “Do Not Call” lists. (Arizona, Kansas, Maine, Pennsylvania, Virginia)

Residents of ALL states can employ one of these methods, as well:

• The Direct Mail Association’s Telephone Preference Service (free registration by mail; $5 fee for online registration)
  
• Private Citizen, a widely-endorsed, nationwide “Do Not Call” list ($20)

California residents: our list is coming! CA Senate Bill 771 provides for a California Do Not Call list, which will be set up in early 2003.

Delaware residents: See Senate Bill SB41. Illinois residents: see SB1830. Massachusetts residents: see HB5225. New Jersey residents: see S445.

It is not surprising that criminals are attempting to benefit from this legislation. Beware the “do not call” scam.

I will endeavor to keep this data up-to-date; feel free to suggest changes using the email address elsewhere on this page. I thank Macintouch for pointing to the article that began this research frenzy (States Ring In Do Not Call Laws), and to the readers who have supplied additional information.

Update: On 2003-03-12, President Bush signed legislation creating a national “do-not-call” list. According to the AP report, “telemarketers say the registry will devastate their business.” That sounds like reason to celebrate. The system should be in place by summer 2003.

Patronize these links, man:

• Telemarketing Primer
• Laws, by state

The Chron published some satirical bumper sticker slogans to celebrate governor Gray Davis’ handling of the energy crisis. Here are my favorites:

• Ich bin ein bulb-dimmer
• Power to some of the people
• Carpe Nocturna

See the link above for the rest of the list.

Don’t let Bush and Cheney lie to you — conservation is a very real means to an end. I always thought I was pretty energy conscious, but even so I was able to easily carve a substantial chunk out of my electric bill.

This graph shows my total KWh usage (top line) versus PG&E’s “baseline” usage (bottom line) for the past five months. My lifestyle has not changed dramatically… I am not living in the dark or eating from styrofoam plates. I simply replaced a dozen incandescent bulbs with compact fluorescents, and became more vigilant about turning off unused devices, including computers. The result is visible: nearly a 40% drop in total KWh consumed.

I suspect some of this savings is due to the change in weather over the past few months. However, the whole county grew warmer, and the baseline KWh allowance did not change radically. This tends to indicate that the weather is not solely responsible for my drop in consumption, or the baseline ought to register a 40% drop as well.

PG&E’s proposed pricing changes impose penalties for usage over baseline, so the convergence of these two lines translates to real dollars saved. Sure, I spent some money on CF bulbs, but those are getting cheaper all the time, and I only had to buy them once.