EPA GAS MILEAGE UPDATE In the issue of this newsletter there was an article about EPA gas mileage, how to measure it, and information on how to find the Annual Fuel Economy Report sent to Congress and available to the public as of 1978

No. 202 November 1999

EPA GAS MILEAGE UPDATE In the No. 195 April 1999 issue of this newsletter there was an article about EPA gas mileage, how to measure it, and information on how to find the Annual Fuel Economy Report sent to Congress. Now the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Energy have created a website for fuel economy ( http://www.fueleconomy.gov ). Miles per gallon (MPG) information is given for domestic and foreign passenger cars (of all sizes), light and standard size pickup trucks, vans, minivans, and large and small sport utility vehicles. One feature of the site offers the option(s) for finding the MPG for any 2000 make/model vehicle ( http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/findacar.htm ). If you want to compare a Chevrolet Blazer to a Toyota 4Runner (or any other make/model) choose the "Compare-side-by-side" option ( http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/sbs.htm ). The 24 page Model Year 2000 Fuel Economy Guide http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/FEG2000.htm ) in a PDF file is very informative. Within the miles per gallon ratings and fuel efficiency/inefficiency, the Best and Worst car, truck, and SUV among the Model 2000 vehicles will be identified at http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/bestworst.shtml . Honda Insight is rated as having the BEST gas mileage of all (vehicles), and Ferrari 550 Maranello is the WORST. Dodge Durango 4WD is the WORST for truck gas mileage. For all makes and models of vehicles from 1978 through 2000, the MPG fuel economy data can be found and downloaded as zipped data-files from http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/download.shtml. The 1997 through 2000 data files/guides are also available here as PDF files for easy reading and downloading. These zipped data files are an alternative to the Federal Register locations discussed in my April 1999 newsletter article. This is a very helpful web site.

AMERICAN LIFE/ECONOMIC INSIGHTS FROM DALLAS W. Michael Cox and Richard Alm at the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas have provided both extensive research and intensive analysis from 1992 to 1998. They "explore economic issues as they relate to the nation’s dynamic free enterprise system." As early as 1992, Cox and Alm observed in The Churn: The Paradox of Progress that America’s churn or uneven labor turnover in the labor market is a current major issue and problem in America. Downsizing and mass layoffs occur simultaneous with the creation of new products, industries, and jobs. 1993 brought These are the Good Old Days: A Report on U.S. Living Standards. 1994 brought a new insight into an updated view of the Service Industries with The Service Sector: Give It Some Respect. These essays discuss the death of obsolete and birth of new service professions as they relate to the development of new technological innovations and inventions in the Agrarian, Industrial, and Information Ages in America. In The Economy at Light Speed: Technology and Growth in the Information Age and Beyond, Cox and Alm describe the daily routine of a 21^st century family. A family, whose style, reflects all the technological innovations in America's work, study, leisure, and economic characteristics. Cox and Alm, in 1998, have concluded (within The Right Stuff: America’s Move to Mass Customization") that America's technological goals have taken a new direction. Mass production gave us an affordable product, like the black Model-T Ford. All Model-Ts were exactly the same. Now technology allows mass production and for the personalization of products at mass-production prices. My new car "remembers" to self-adjust the front seat and mirrors for me. Included within the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas Annual Reports from 1992 through 1998, these essays are found as text files (without graphics) and as pdf files (complete with all graphics) at the Bank’s web site: http://www.dallasfed.org/htm/pubs/annual.html . What comes in 1999 ?

AMISTAD Amistad is the 19th century Spanish ship that in 1839 transported 55 West African slaves from Havana to another part of Cuba. During the trip, the slaves revolted, killed the captain, seized the ship, and ended up in Connecticut, a State in which slavery was legal. The Amistad incident represents a significant two-sided event in America’s history. First, in American slave history, slaves used the United States courts to gain their freedom and go home. As a legal issue, the incident also showed how the Federal Judiciary System responded to the many jurisdictional issues of slavery. The Supreme Court’s decision, in 1841set the Amistad slaves free and solved the immediate problem of slaves as property, but the Courts never challenged the extensive system of slavery as it operated in the United States. The movie version of the Amistad incident will provide all the social, legal, and historical details, but the legal side of this event is summarized in "The Amistad and the Federal Courts" in The Court Historian, Issue No. 2, March 1998, pages 1-3 (JU13.15: 9). "Resources for Further Study of the Amistad Case", on page 3, lists two books, the Supreme Court Case Citation (40 U.S. 518), and several Internet web sites for archival, http://www.nara.gov/education/teaching/amistad , legal ( http://www.law.cornell.edu/amistad ) and secondary sources of information http://amistad.mysticseaport.org about the Amistad Case.

MAPS --LITERARY/IMAGINARY Did you ever see The Ian Flemming Thriller Map of James Bond's travels? How about A Map of Middle Earth, from Tolkien's Lord of the Rings? How about The Wonderful Land of OZ? A good literary map for Illinois will not help you find your way, but Illinois Authors (1987) will identify the birthplace of many American writers born in Illinois. Do you need a map of The Land of Make Believe or a map of Robin Hood's area of Sherwood Forest? Language of the Land: Library of Congress Book of Literary Maps compiled by Martha Hopkins and Michael Buscher in 1999 is 304 pages of 203 interesting maps. Language will identify all of these maps and more. The maps in this book are arranged geographically by country(ies), regions (of the U.S.), States, Cities, Specific books and authors, and Imaginary Worlds, Folklore, Myths, Fairy Tales, and Nursery Rhymes. The authors also provided a 12-page index and a bibliography of similar literary atlases and map compilations. This title is in many libraries under SuDoc number LC 5.2:L26/2 or you can find it is for sale for $50 by the U.S. Government Printing Office, Superintendent of Documents, P.O. Box 371945, Pittsburgh, PA 15250-7954. "Language of the Land, Library Publishes Book of Literary Maps" by Martha Hopkins in The Library of Congress Information Bulletin, v. 58, no. 9 September, 1999 pages 218-223 http://www.loc.gov/loc/lcib/9909/litmap.html is an article worth viewing/reading if you like literary maps.

MSA MAPS REVISED AND REVISITED The No. 184, May 1998 issue of this newsletter visited the Census Bureau website for information about the latest revisions (if any) of the Metropolitan Statistical Areas found in the United States. Since then, the Census web site has changed the MSA URL to http://www.census.gov/population/www/estimates/metrodef.html and provided an electronic version of OMB Bulletin 99-04 announcing the Metropolitan Areas as of June 30, 1999. This Census web page will also link to 4 different lists of the MSAs. After identifying the MSA(s) in question, the next step is maps. The Census web page at http://www.census.gov/population/www/estimates/metroarea.html will show you the "Metropolitan Areas" page that has the links to the "1999 Metropolitan Areas Page Sized Maps", "1999 Metropolitan Areas Wall Map", and the "1999 New England Metropolitan Areas Wall Map" pages. All of these online maps are in a PDF format that requires Adobe-Acrobat Reader. There is also order information on this page for the paper version of these maps. At the "Metropolitan Area Standards Review Project (MASRP)" web site ( http://www.census.gov/population/www/estimates/masrp.html ), there is a Federal Register link to information and details about the review of the MSA's definition and the proposed alternatives.

NEW MADRID FAULT REVISTED On November 5, 1999 there was an Associated Press news article "'BIG ONE' in Midwest's Future, Study Reaffirms New Madrid Peril" by Paul Recer. This article relates two recent studies of the New Madrid Seismic Fault Zone (NMSZ). One study by Karl Mueller estimates, as high, the current risk possibilities of the NMSZ. The other study ("Slow Deformation and Lower Seismic Hazard at the New Madrid Seismic Zone" by Andrew Newman, et al., Science v. 248 23 April 1999, pages 619-621) concluded that the earthquake hazard from NMSZ is virtually nil. Within this AP article, Dr. Joan Gomberg, of the U.S.G.S says that the official (I assume USGS) estimate of the hazard is neither zero nor as high as Mr. Muller predicts. Hopefully, any earthquake predictor conducts him/herself in accord with the "Guidelines for Earthquake Predictors" found in Earthquake Information Bulletin, v. 16, no. 4, July-August 1983 pages 166-169(I 19.65:16/4). These are guidelines for a earthquake predictor's conduct as a scientist, for his interaction with his fellow scientists, with public officials, and with the public. Dr.Iben Browning, "an earthquake predictor" in 1989-1990 violated all the rules when he publicized his prediction of a New Madrid fault earthquake on December 3, 1990. This New Mexico climatologist started, in November 1989, talking publicly about a December earthquake (Appendix C, page 73). The media, which "picked-up" on his news, and together aroused the American public to a state of anxious concern equaled only (?) by the current Y2K computer problem. Yet, the Y2K problem is real and Browning’s prediction was wrong. To learn the details about Dr. Browning and the "New Madrid panic of 1990" (my words), read Responses to Iben Browning's Prediction of a 1990 New Madrid, Missouri, Earthquake, issued in 1993 by the U.S. Geological Survey as Circular 1083 (I 19.4/2:1083). This is 250 pages of text and documentation reveal how one person's prediction can cause innumerable nationwide scientific, commercial, legislative, newspaper, and preparedness literature responses. Just another bit of earth shattering news.

SUBSTANCE USE IN MOVIES AND MUSIC To some degree, alcohol, tobacco, and illicit drugs have always been in the movies. The heroes and heroines smoked and had a cocktail before dinner; cowboys chewed tobacco and visited the town saloon. There were morals about alcohol and drug abuse to be learned in "The Days of Wine and Roses", the "Lost Weekend", and "The Man With the Golden Arm" and other similar classic movies which emphasized the negative consequences of alcohol and drug addiction. A recent study of 200 most popular movies and 1,000 of the most popular songs of 1996 and 1997 show that 93% of the movies depicted alcohol use, and 89% depicted tobacco. About 27% of the 1000 songs contained references to either alcohol or illicit drugs. But the music does not have the persuasive impact of the movies. Substance Use in Popular Movies & Music issued in April 1999 is the twenty-second content analysis of the media's portrayals of illegal drugs, tobacco, alcohol, and/or legal drugs in music, television programs, and movies. The other twenty-one studies are identified in detailed abstracts in "Appendix B: Review of Media Content Analyses: 1980-1998". These studies are also found in the "Annotated Bibliography" of this very detailed textual and statistical analysis. Appendices C and D list the 200 movies and the 1000 songs that were analyzed. This 30-page study may be found in libraries as SUDOC No. PREX 26.2:SU 8 and electronically at http://www.mediacampaign.org/publications/movies/movie_toc.html . The data sets for this study can be downloaded at http://www.health.org/mediadata/index.htm

COMPUTERS ARE HAZARDOUS TO YOUR HEALTH Let me count the ways!! First, as consumer, there is the mental anguish of making a decision as to what hardware and what software to buy, what brand is "best". As a user, sometimes-endless patience is required to learn to use what was just purchased. On the physical side, computer production is hazardous to the workers in the semiconductor industry. Computers themselves contain and are made with a number of hazardous materials The people who make computers are exposed to ten "Chemicals of Concern in the Semiconductor Industry"(page A456) which have immediate and long-term adverse and sometimes fatal effects. Then comes the problem of computer disposal. Obsolete computers not disposed of through give-away programs will have to be disassembled and their parts recycled. Too many obsolete computers could lead to a solid waste problem and recycling has its occupational hazards. "The Obsolete Computer Problem, Working for Solutions" (page A454) is part of "Where the Chips Fall: Environmental Health in the Semiconductor Industry" Environmental Health Perspectives v. 107, no. 9 September 1999 pages 452-457 (HE 20.3559:107/9) gives a new meaning to the issue of computers as a health hazard.

December 3, 1999

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