It may be hard to imagine how an Oscar nomination and Berkeley biochemist Bruce Ames would wind up in the same news column, but that s just what happed when writer Paul Mulshine examined the story behind the movie Erin Brockovich. The problem with the investigation that s the basis for the film, said Ames, is that they never controlled for things like smoking and diet.
Nobody wants to think anything they do is their own fault.
On the other hand, writes journalism senior lecturer Susan Rasky in the Los Angeles Times, the rest of the country likes to think everything that happens to Californians even natural disasters is our own fault. Maybe that s why the tone of the energy coverage in recent days is not just apocalyptic, it s downright hostile. Meanwhile, energy economist Severin Borenstein provided a particularly delicious explanation for why our current pricing scheme is a failure. Most homeowners and businesses currently pay the same price for electricity regardless of whether they use it at peak times when shortages loom or at off-peak when there is plenty to go around. It s like running a salad bar where you pay by the ounce for anything you eat.