Philip Greenspun’s Weblog

Has California succeeded where Tranheuser-Busch and Target failed?

October 22, 2023September 19, 2023 by philg

It’s been more than a month since Governor French Laundry signed a new California bill that revoked the state’s ban on taxpayer-funded travel to the Lands of the Deplorables (26 horrible states).

Hate is now okay, in other words? Not exactly. The new bill says that California taxpayers’ money will be used to eliminate hate in the 26 bad states via advertising: “creates a new public awareness project that will consult with community leaders to promote California’s values of acceptance and inclusion of the LGBTQ+ community across the country” (press release)

The marketing geniuses behind Target and Bud Light famously failed this summer at their stated goals of getting more Americans to embrace the 2SLGBTQQIA+ lifestyle or, at least, celebrate the 2SLGBTQQIA+ lifestyle. The bureaucrats in Sacramento imagined that they will be more successful than the world’s highest-paid advertising experts.

Readers who live in formerly banned states: have you been reached by California’s public awareness project? If you were a hater, were you persuaded to stop hating?

Separately, I’m wondering if the ban revocation was timed to allow California elites to travel (on the taxpayers’ dime) to Austin, Texas for today’s Formula One race. Who’s watching the race on TV or in person? It might be fun to be a Formula One fan here in Florida if the organizers would schedule the Miami race for February or March rather than May (a time when a person should be paid to sit outdoors all afternoon, not pay $2,000 for the experience).

Separately, a Facebook friend in Maskachusetts is an attorney with a passion for Constitutional rights (which is why he continues to reside in a lockdown state?). He recently represented a woman who was attacked and ultimately sued by her wealthy suburban Boston neighbors for thoughtcrime. An excerpt from her lawsuit defense:

[one lawn sign displayed by the defendant] shows the words “PRIDEMONTH” and then the letters on each side of “PRIDEMONTH” fade out, to “PRIDEMONTH” to finally “DEMON” and on the last line, it says “Makes sense now.”

The judge was hostile to the Deplorable lady, and she told the defendant to stop sharing her political views, but ultimately couldn’t find a basis to rule in favor of the plaintiffs.

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On the effectiveness of the Anti-Defamation League

October 21, 2023October 19, 2023 by philg

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) claims expertise in eliminating hatred. When they started, they were experts in getting American haters to love Jews. In their own opinion, at least, they were so good at this that they expanded. Here’s just their civil rights section:

They want to make sure that low-skill Americans have plenty of competition from low-skill immigrants:

ADL fights tirelessly for immigrants and refugees seeking safety and a better life in the U.S. Through legislative advocacy, amicus briefs, and public awareness efforts, we have promoted just and humane immigration and refugee protection policies throughout the decades.

The ADL will make haters realize that #LoveWins:

ADL has long fought in the U.S. and abroad to advance LGBTQ+ equity, encouraging legislation that protects individuals’ rights and providing education resources that make schools, workplaces and communities more welcoming and inclusive.

What have we seen in the past few weeks? Muslim immigrants to the U.S., whose right to settle here was pushed by the ADL, rallying and pointing out that the Islamic Resistance Movement (“Hamas”) is not a terrorist organization, but the Israeli government and all supporters of Israel are (video). Twitter and Facebook jammed with anti-Israel content. A young woman in a hijab in NYC and her friend giving the finger to a billboard truck advocating for the return of hostages held by Hamas (video). Depending on your political point of view, you might agree with these anti-Israel positions, but I think that everyone can agree this is not what the ADL was trying to accomplish.

Maybe the ADL could be more effective with people if they would spend more time soaking up the ADL message? From the New York Post:

One of the NYU students who brazenly ripped down posters of Israeli hostages is an activist “extremely passionate about fighting racial profiling” who blamed her behavior on misplaced anger.

Yazmeen Deyhimi — a junior at the top university who once worked for the Anti-Defamation League — admitted to tearing apart banners that were plastered outside NYU’s Tisch Hall, in a shameless act that was caught on video.

“I have found it increasingly difficult to know my place as a biracial brown woman, especially during these highly volatile times,” she wrote.

According to her LinkedIn profile, Deyhimi is an advocate against Muslim bigotry and spent a summer working with the ADL as a CSC education intern when she was just 15 years old.

“After review, we can confirm that one of the participants was part of an ADL high school level summer internship in 2019,” a spokesperson for the organization told The Post.

The ADL had a whole summer to convince this young person that Jews are lovable!

If the ADL has failed spectacularly at its original mission, at least the Ministry of Truth is working effectively there:

The ADL has since taken down a blog post announcing the Long Island native as one of the 12 student leaders joining the program, describing Deyhimi as “extremely passionate about fighting racial profiling and championing gender equality.”

Does supporting Hamas impair a migrant’s claim for asylum in the U.S.? Not according to the Deplorables at the Daily Wire… “The U.S. Gov’t Hired A Pro-Hamas PLO Spokeswoman To Handle Asylum Claims”:

Speaking of Deplorable, what does Ron DeSantis have to say about the ADL’s passions for Islamic immigration and using propaganda to eliminate hatred? From Twitter:

No Gaza refugees, period.

It’s a fools errand to think we can separate a terrorist from a ‘freedom lover’ in Gaza.

the College Terror List, which was disappeared by the Ministries of Truth at Google, archive.org, DuckDuckGo, and all of the other righteous folks. This page contains various statements by elite college students who don’t seem to have been reached by the ADL’s message about the wonderfulness of Jews. Harvard: “We … hold the Israeli regime entirely responsible for all unfolding violence”; Stanford: “while Palestinian resistance is legal under international law, Israel’s breathtakingly violent actions are illegal collective punishment under the Geneva Convention”; Swarthmore: “Since early Saturday morning, Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank have valiantly confronted the imperial apparatus that has constricted their livelihoods…”; George Mason: “Every Palestinian is a civilian even if they hold arms. A settler is an aggressor, a soldier, and an occupier even if they are lounging on our occupied beaches.” (preserved by Ghostarchive; the only way to find it is with the Kagi search engine (see below))

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New Yorkers write about the Florida homeowners insurance market disaster… using 100-year-old wooden houses as a typical example

October 20, 2023October 17, 2023 by philg

Just as the weather here in Palm Beach County turned perfect (dry and highs of 75-80), friends in Maskachusetts who’ve been talking about escape send me an article from the Manhattan-based Wall Street Journal, “Home Insurance Is So High in This Florida Town, Residents Are Leaving”:

James and Laura Molinari left Chicago for a two-story stucco home in this city’s historic Flamingo Park neighborhood. The four-bedroom house was a short bridge away from Palm Beach island and walking distance to downtown West Palm Beach.

Then the renewal for his home insurance arrived. The new rate for the year starting in September was around $121,000—more than seven times what the Molinaris said they paid last year, and more than 13 times what they paid when the family moved to Florida in 2019.

While they found a better rate from another insurer, at about $33,000 it is still nearly double what they paid last year. The family this month listed the home for sale with an asking price of nearly $3.5 million after determining that insurance costs made staying there too expensive. Others in Flamingo Park told The Wall Street Journal they are drawing the same conclusion.

Paying nearly 1% of the house’s value for insurance is pretty expensive. But… “historic” in Florida? Here’s a house that I found on Zillow in that neighborhood:

It’s almost 100 years old. Is it made from concrete blocks and steel rebar like the typical reasonably new house in Florida? No. It’s a wood structure (“frame”):

So the New York-based journalists write about a 100-year-old neighborhood with the implication that this is typical for Florida. In fact, any house built after Hurricane Andrew (1992; made landfall south of Miami as a Category 5 storm) is likely well-defended against hurricanes. State Farm won’t write new policies on houses built before 2003, presumably due to the fact that a post-Andrew building code took effect statewide in 2002 (a similar code took effect just two years after Andrew in South Florida).

Can Israel find all of Hamas’s tunnels with ground-penetrating radar? And then what?

October 19, 2023October 17, 2023 by philg

Prior to this latest over-the-fence attack, Hamas’s (“officially the Islamic Resistance Movement”) main military strategy was tunneling under the fence with Israel and emerging to fight on the unprotected side or tunneling under the border with Egypt and bringing weapons in. (see “Palestinian tunnel warfare in the Gaza Strip” from Wikipedia).

I’m wondering what stops the Israelis from finding all of the tunnels via ground-penetrating radar. Before we decided to open our border, we attempted to find tunnels connecting the U.S. and Mexico (DHS 2009). This 2014 article from The Times of Israel discusses the technology’s limitations:

Ground-penetrating radar, known as GPR, is among the most promising technological responses to the tunnels, Israeli and American experts say. The radar – which can “see” into the ground – has been used from the surface to search for smuggling tunnels under the US-Mexico border. Radar installations are also installed in deep holes in the ground to search for attack tunnels under the Korean Demilitarized Zone.

The experts say the Korean type of of cross-borehole ground-penetrating radar could be installed along the border to create a permanent detection barrier – deep enough to spot any tunnel Palestinians militants could dig. The barrier could be monitored for changes from a remote center, and in combination with other technologies could provide the best method of securing the border.

A limitation of ground-penetrating radar is that even in ideal conditions, it only provides an accurate image from the surface up to a depth of about 15 meters. The known tunnels in Mexico are as much as 27 meters below ground.

In the DMZ between North and South Korea, four tunnels have been found from the north running as deep as 160 meters below ground. The South Korean army – previously with guidance from the US Army Corps of Engineers – has on an ad hoc basis used cross-borehole ground-penetrating radar to look for tunnels as deep as 600 meters, …

In cross-borehole ground-penetrating radar, pairs of narrow holes are drilled deep into the ground and antennae are lowered into them — one for sending and the other for receiving the signals. From the boreholes, the radar can provide an image all the way down to the water table. However, there have been no reports of tunnels being found this way in the DMZ.

Maybe the water table is an issue? The Coastal Aquifer from which Gaza gets most of its water (pumping it out via wells) is only 20-50 meters below the surface and perhaps some of Hamas’s tunnels are deeper?

If Israel (or “the Zionist entity” as Hamas officials refer to the enemy) is on the surface inside Gaza, can they drill underground to place radar gear and come up with a complete subsurface map?

It looks like some USGS folks tried to do this in the mid-1990s to find old mine tunnels:

If the answer to the above is “yes”, then what? Suppose that someone with control of the surface wanted to destroy the tunnels. How can they do it? (I’m assuming that there won’t be any people inside the tunnels at this point. Presumably the Hamas fighters will migrate south and mix seamlessly into the civilian population, live off U.S. and E.U. taxpayers, then come back in 2024 or 2025 with a renewed vengeance.)

There are “bunker buster” bombs designed to destroy stuff underground, but wouldn’t it be simpler and cheaper to drill a shaft down into a previously-mapped tunnel and drop a modest-sized explosive into the shaft? If so, will Gaza be transformed for a few months into what looks like an oil-drilling field?

Related (very loosely):

“Address by President Nelson Mandela at International Day of Solidarity with Palestinian People, Pretoria” (1997): “… our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of the Palestinians”

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Aftermarket software for dishwashers?

October 18, 2023October 16, 2023 by philg

Some people complain that dishwasher performance has been hobbled by regulations limiting water usage (see a comment on Science says to throw out all of your appliances, for example).

For showerheads, manufacturers deal with the regulations by making normal-flow devices in metal and inserting a plastic flow restrictor that any consumer with a screwdriver can knock out, thus bypassing the regulation and luxuriating in a powerful shower.

With automobiles, people who want to get the last bit of performance install aftermarket software for engine control (example from the UK; example from Norway). I’m wondering why nobody seems to have done with this dishwashers. Everything about the dishwasher is under software control, right? When to fill with fresh water, when to stop filling, when to turn on the circulation pump, when to turn on the drain pump, when to open the detergent compartment, etc.

What would stop a consumer from installing his/her/zir/their own control board that would do the following:

fill the dishwasher with 2X the standard amount of water
run the circulation pump for a while (assume the owner has put some detergent in directly on the inside of the door
pump out the dirty water
fill the dishwasher again with fresh water
pump out the rinse water
fill the dishwasher with 2X the standard amount of water
open the detergent compartment
run the circulation pump for a while
rinse again
…

If the 1980s experience is what is sought, start with a dishwasher that includes a grinding disposer instead of a weak European-style filter (example: GE’s Piranha Hard Food Disposer).

What’s the flaw in the above theory? Are today’s circulation pumps nowhere near as powerful as what the dishwashers of the 1980s had? (I remember putting in pans with stuck-on cheese and they came out of a Whirlpool dishwasher completely clean; the machine was rather noisy, though.) If the pumps are as good as in the old days, it would seem that fresh software could restore function to pre-regulation levels.

“War on appliances continues as Biden admin releases new rules for dishwashers” (Fox News, March 2023)

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Single-stage versus variable-speed air conditioning dehumidification performance

October 17, 2023October 14, 2023 by philg

After an exciting summer packed with three blower motor failures in three 6-year-old Trane single-speed air conditioning systems, the transformation of our house into a showcase for variable-speed communicating Trane/American Standard equipment is complete.

For background, see the folllowing:

The most humid part of our house was the upstairs. This contains two big bedrooms served by a 3-ton A/C for a calculated Manual J demand of 2.1 tons. Relative humidity was 58-62 percent with a TEM6 variable-speed air handler and a single-stage condenser.

Step 1 was replacing the condenser with a variable-speed “communicating” condenser that sends digital information back to the air handler over a two-conductor cable. Trane says that this new condenser is a match for the 6-year-old TEM6 so long as an adapter relay panel is installed. What they don’t say is that the result is a brain-dead system in which the air handler always runs at the same blower speed regardless of what the compressor speed is. Compared to the 6-year-old single-stage A/C, there was no reduction in humidity from this arrangement.

Step 2 was replacing the (working perfect with a new blower) TEM6 air handler with a top-of-the-line TAM9 air handler. Humidity immediately plummeted to a reasonable 51 percent on a wet hot Florida day with hours of rain, an 87-degree high, and humidity as high as 95 percent.

What does #Science say about this result? “Dehumidification performance of a variable speed heat pump and a single speed heat pump with and without dehumidification capabilities in a warm and humid climate” (Kone and Fumo 2020; Energy Reports):

the variable speed mode was able to maintain relative humidity between 50% to 52% on summer days. In the single-speed with enhanced dehumidification, a slightly less effective humidity control was achieved on summer days with the mode keeping the relative humidity between 53% to 55%. In the normal cooling mode, which resembles a conventional system, the humidity levels were controlled between 55% to 60%. In the shoulder season, the variable speed and enhanced dehumidification modes maintained the relative humidity between 55% to 58% and 53% to 56% respectively. In the shoulder season, the normal cooling mode kept the indoor relative humidity near or above 60%.

In going from single-stage to variable-speed, #Science found a reduction in humidity from an average of 57.5% to 51% (middle of the ranges given), or 6.5%. My data, consistent from a Govee sensor set and a $300 Airthings monitor, was 8-10% reduction in the relative humidity reading. The ground floor of the house still feels and measures less humid (40-50% depending on the location), but walking upstairs no longer feels like entering a steam room.

It’s tough to find objective data from anywhere else. Carrier is the only company, I think, that offers any numbers:

The Trane stuff has an emergency dehumidification capability in which it will run the heat strips as the same time as the A/C. Carrier also might have something like this (their commercial systems have a “reheat” mode that might do something similar, but using only the coil and not the resistive heat strips).

It is unclear from the Carrier page if they’re talking about using an extreme measure to dehumidify or just running the variable-speed in an optimized manner.

I’m also unclear what they mean by “400 percent more moisture” removed. If a single-stage system is removing 1 gallon of water, the variable-speed system removes 5 gallons when outside temp and thermostat temp are held constant? That doesn’t seem plausible. If it is hot and humid outside, the system has to remove a huge amount of water just to do its basic job (since cooling outside air will almost immediately result in 100% relative humidity and condensation).

If relative humidity is linear in the amount of water vapor, a properly sized single-stage system has already removed more than half the water that was originally present in the air (since cooling resulted in 100% relative humidity and the house ended up at 50% humidity). As great as Carrier may be (they’re headquartered only about two miles from our house here in Palm Beach County!), I don’t see how they can remove 5X the amount of water compared to a system that removes half of the water available.

(Why didn’t we get Carrier? We already had Trane gear and thought that we might be able to preserve at least some of it (we weren’t). Also, the Carrier dealer who came out to quote the project refused to deal with our house because of a splice where the wires exit the house near the condenser, claiming that their communication wouldn’t function properly.)

I can’t figure out why single-stage A/C continues to be the standard here in the U.S. Everyone in Asia has variable-speed equipment (all of the mini splits are variable-speed). Assuming a constant thermostat setting, a single-stage system is the correct size for only one outdoor temperature. Why wouldn’t people be willing to pay a little more for a system that can run at the correct speed for whatever temp Climate Change happens to dish out at any given hour on any given day? Is it that it is impossible to explain to consumers what a dumb idea single-stage A/C is? (Maybe it makes sense in Arizona, though, where there isn’t any humidity to begin with?)

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Statistics behind why New York City is the best destination for migrants

October 16, 2023October 13, 2023 by philg

“New York Is Starting to Act Like a Southern Border State” (New York Times, last week):

New York City is spending $383 per family per night to house homeless new arrivals, thanks to a consent decree from a state court that requires the city to provide shelter to those who need it. [almost $12,000 per month per family; health care and food on top of this, presumably]

People who apply for asylum in New York are more likely to get it than those who apply in other places. New York immigration judges deny only 26 percent of asylum cases, compared with 92 percent in Houston and 86 percent in Miami, according to TRAC, an information clearinghouse at Syracuse University. And migrants who make it to New York are less likely to be deported. Since 2014, sanctuary city and state laws have limited cooperation with Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

In other words, a migrant who reaches New York City has a 74 percent chance of being awarded full legal status (asylum). If he/she/ze/they does not win the asylum status, he/she/ze/they can nonetheless stay forever in New York City, which will not cooperate with La Migra (even if La Migra were motivated to deport the average undocumented migrant).

Separately, let’s remember that, according to Science, immigrant humans are always beneficial to natives while immigrant animals are always harmful. Here’s an immigrant-removal service parked in our neighborhood:

Florida Fish and Wildlife:

The cane toad (also known as the bufo, giant or marine toad) is a large, nonnative amphibian that has been introduced into Florida. Cane toads are considered an invasive species and are poisonous to most animals that try to bite or consume them. … Cane toads also potentially compete with native frogs and toads for food and breeding areas.

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Diversity at Harvard

October 15, 2023October 15, 2023 by philg

A friend is an alumni interviewer for Harvard. He sent me the Interviewer Guidebook for 2028.

Let’s keep in mind that Harvard was so passionate about the critical need for diversity that they fought all the way to the Supreme Court for the right to do what was ultimately found unconstitutional, i.e., select people by skin color. Here’s the team that the diversity experts assembled…

Could a Harvard graduate who questioned school closures, lockdowns, mask orders, and vaccine papers checks be an interviewer? No:

[you must disclose and will be rejected if] Your internet presence might be considered inappropriate, problematic or if other considerations might affect the perception of Harvard’s integrity. Many applicants Google their alumni interviewer in preparation for the interview.

[Advocating the liberation of Palestine by whatever means are necessary, on the other hand, is the kind of “free expression” that Harvard officially supports and, perhaps, the only freedom of expression that is tolerated at Harvard.]

Thoughtcrime on the Internet (why can’t these huge-brained Ivy League geniuses capitalize the public “Internet”?) is as bad as “You have been convicted of a felony”.

If your criminal record is thin and your Internet presence is righteous, you might be selected. You’re then reminded that “Harvard prides itself on being welcoming and inclusive” and to “Avoid making assumptions about applicants’ pronouns.” Also, that some of the 17-year-old applicants might be afraid of COVID-19 and therefore might want a virtual interview, but also that “Some applicants may not have a computer or smartphone”.

How’s the new skin-color-blind Harvard doing? Here are example reports from an alumni interviewer back to the mother ship:

Olivia spoke at length about her experience being the only student of color in gifted classes in elementary school, and one of only a few now in high school.

Sarah is a very accomplished young woman. She shared that her affiliation with the Klikitat nation, a North Pacific Tribe, is central to her identity… The majority of her time is spent serving elderly and disabled community members at a tribal nursing home.

Xavier’s most rewarding high school experiences have been his social justice work. He is the president of his school’s Black Student Union and has collaborated with his local NAACP chapter, youth council, and local elementary and middle schools. He shared that there is not a large African American nor Latinx community local to him…

What if an interviewer hasn’t been to reeducation camp lately?

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How is the wage-price spiral going?

October 14, 2023October 11, 2023 by philg

The smartest people in the U.S. say that a wage-price spiral cannot occur. “Giving Workers a Raise Is Not Going to Make Inflation Worse” (New York Times, October 2):

At the moment, wages are rising faster than inflation, which means that “real,” or inflation-adjusted wages, are rising.

“There is almost no evidence” that wage increases lead to inflation, Rosenberg wrote. His firm conducted a statistical test (called Granger causality) that found inflation causes wage increases, but not the other way around. He predicted that rather than passing along higher wage costs to customers, companies would be forced to swallow them and accept lower profits.

In other words, the Science of Rosenberg and Granger proves that cars and bicycles sell for the same amount because higher costs for producers don’t shift the supply curve and change the equilibrium price.

Here’s the latest from our local schools:

The School District of Palm Beach County reached an agreement with the Palm Beach County Classroom Teachers Association (CTA) that will give an average 7% pay increase and one-time 3% bonus to instructional employees. The agreement was approved by the School Board during its Special Meeting on October 4, 2023. The significant raise demonstrates the District’s commitment to fairly compensating teachers for their hard work and dedication to students.

There is no possibility of the price of property tax going up to pay for this, according to the New York Times.

September 2023: Hollywood agrees on a new, higher-paying, contract with writers; “an 18 percent pay bump and a 26 percent increase in the base rate with which residual payments are calculated” (Washington Post)

October 2023: “Streaming services keep getting more expensive: all the latest price increases” (The Verge).

Received October 10, 2023, regarding the supply for our 10-year-old crack addict:

Also from October: “Ford Already Covering UAW Wage Increases With Huge 2024 F-150 Price Hikes”.

July 2023: “Disneyland Workers Could Get Nearly $20 an Hour Following Appeals Court Ruling”.

October 2023: “On the most popular days, though, Disneyland is raising prices by more than 8% to $194. For a five-day ticket, Disneyland raised prices by nearly 16% to $480. The park also raised the price of various add-ons. Disneyland’s Genie+ product, which gives customers access to shorter lines, will now cost $30 a person, up by $5. For five-day tickets, the price for Park Hopper, which lets customers go between Disneyland and Disney California Adventure Park on the same day, also rose by 25% to $75. Disneyland also raised the price for parking and other products, including its Magic Key annual passes.” (Wall Street Journal)

Readers: What else have you seen that could be considered evidence for my discredited theory that a wage-price spiral could occur?

The good news: if your own income isn’t keeping up with inflation, you can save money by shopping at Costco. On a September 25, 2023 visit, they were offering a bottle of Champagne for $4,500, including a free glass.

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Science says to throw out all of your appliances

October 13, 2023October 9, 2023 by philg

Planet Earth can be saved if we all throw out our 2-10-year-old appliances that are in perfect working condition. That’s the Science according to the New York Times… “The Climate Fight Will Be Won in the Appliance Aisle” (Oct 1, 2023):

Two of these [Inflation Reduction Act] programs are tax credits meant to give Americans a tax discount when they install a new rooftop solar system, a geothermal-powered heater, a heat pump or another technology that reduces demand for carbon-emitting fossil fuels. Unlike other tax credits in the law, these programs have no income cap, so they can be used by wealthy Americans who can presumably afford to pay upfront to install residential equipment like a water heater. But like other new tax credits in the law, they require Americans to have some federal tax liability in the first place. If you owe nothing on your taxes, then you can’t get a discount.

The I.R.A. introduced a pair of rebate programs meant to help working- and middle-class Americans afford to upgrade appliances and other features of their homes. These two programs, known as HOMES and HEEHRA, are important. When it’s finally put in place, HEEHRA will lower the cost of heat pumps and other climate-friendly appliances at the point of sale, making them more affordable to consumers, including those who are not even aware of the policy. More than perhaps any other programs in the law, these rebates are meant to allow low-income Americans to reduce their monthly energy costs. And because they involve direct cash grants, using the rebates will not require oweing any taxes to the federal government. That is huge for retirees and Social Security recipients, many of whom have no earned income and little to no federal tax liability.

The climate fight might be waged in the streets. But it will be won in the appliance aisle.

It is, of course, wonderful that working-class renters must pay for the new high-end air conditioning systems enjoyed by elite homeowners. But I’m confused as to how this can save the planet. If people throw out working appliances and buy new ones, which have to be manufactured, shipped, and installed, won’t that actually increase CO2 emissions? If so, should we consider New York sustainability expert William Lauder to be the greatest environmentalist of the moment? He pushed a 6-year-old house into a landfill:

The new house, presumably, will include higher-efficiency Sub-Zero refrigerators with R600a refrigerant. Our planet, then, began to heal when the excavators started work on this obsolete 6-year-old 36,000-square-foot house.

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