Author: Serkadis

Filed under: Concept Cars, Lamborghini

Slavche Tanevski had a project to complete at the Munich University of Applied Sciences, and the result is the stacked, vented, and char-blackened concept you see above. In keeping with Lamborghini nomenclature, an Ankonian is a kind of bull, and if you took a Lamborghini Reventon and asked the question, “Does it blend?”, the Ankonian concept is what you might pour out of your glassware.

It doesn’t have any hypothetical specs, nor, we suppose, does it really need them. The car is long, low, and narrow, and darkly hostile enough to go as quickly or as slowly as it wishes. What it does have is flames that shoot out of the exhaust, and frankly, that’s enough for us. You can have various looks at it in the gallery of high-res photos below, but please, don’t make it angry. You wouldn’t like it when it’s angry.

[Source: CarDesign.ru (translated)]

Lamborghini Ankonian by Slavche Tanevski is part wasp, part alien, all black originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 17 Dec 2009 18:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Better ways to educate public on human body, disease

Editor, The Times:

We are dismayed that the organizers of the “Bodies: The Exhibition” have chosen to bring their exhibit back to Seattle [“ ‘Bodies: The Exhibition’ returns to Seattle,” Seattletimes.com, Health, Oct. 10].

There are ways to educate the general public about the human body and disease without resorting to the mining of dead bodies from overseas for their prurient shock value. We are offended at the disingenuous attempt to profit commercially from human remains.

As Chinese Americans, we have a millennia-old culture of showing respect to our dead, a culture of respect that has been violated by the “plastination” process and staging of these bodies for sensational display.

This is desecration, pure and simple.

We encourage others to think twice before choosing to spend their money to support this kind of sordid moneymaking enterprise.

— Ron Chew, Lily Jung, Debbie Louie, Seattle

Alamogordo, New Mexico | Natural Wonders

The wind blown sands and rolling dunes of White Sands National Monument blanket an area of 115 square miles in south-central New Mexico. It is the largest pure gypsum dune field in the world. A pure white expanse that has drawn a steady flow of visitors for over 80 years.

Located at the northern limits of the Chihuahuan Desert and at the edge of a US military base and missile-test facility, this U.S. National Park is as obscure as it is beguiling. Visitors can drive to various undulating dunes, take hikes through a nature reserve and even purchase sleds for cruising down the dunes.

Year-in and year-out, the most active dune fields can move in a northeasterly direction at a rate of up to 30 feet per year. These abnormal dunes, formed out of pure gypsum (hydrous calcium sulfate), are borne out of “an ephemeral lake or playa with a very high mineral content,” located in the western section of the monument. As the water in the lake evaporates, it leaves behind minerals that form gypsum deposits. These deposits are then transported by wind and form the ever-expanding sea of dunes.

A reserve can be found at the park as well, where a unique array of specially adapted plants and animals are found. Some of the more distinctive species of animals include the Bleached Earless Lizard, the kit fox as well as the non-native but highly adapted African Oryx. An easily navigable path allows for exploration of this unique landscape.

The miraculous natural setting is a spectacle to experience and despite the park’s popularity, finding solitude amongst the vast whiteness is remarkably easy.

A St. James Cathedral pastor’s plight

I’m curious about the resistance to the Very Rev. Michael G. Ryan’s proposal concerning the forthcoming translation of the Roman Missal [“St. James pastor speaks out against changes in Mass,” NWTuesday, Dec. 15].

Let Catholic bishops of the English-speaking world undertake a yearlong pilot program in selected communities with an educational process, then objectively evaluate the results — hardly a revolutionary proposal, and one sought by more than Ryan.

To date, more than 4,300 people have signed on to the proposal from all over our country, and from Singapore, Canada, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, Italy, Austria, the U.K., Scotland, Belgium, Morocco, Nepal, Japan, Guyana, China, Hong Kong and Malaysia.

Yes, we find the revision process to have violated the spirit of the reforms of Vatican II, but we also wish to pray in an intelligible and, more importantly, beautiful language.

With others, I find what we presently have not all that bad.

— Rev. Roger G. O’Brien, Lynnwood

Unfortunate new translations

As coordinator for a local group of 140 resigned priests, I would like to commend Rev. Michael Ryan for his courage and integrity as a dedicated pastor in proposing a review of the unfortunate new translations for liturgy recently rubber-stamped by the U.S. bishops.

Ryan has been highly regarded by his fellow priests for more than 40 years. From his days as chancellor to his brilliant renovation of St. James Cathedral and the expansion of ministries there. He has created a thriving, dynamic parish for more than 2,000 families who flock there for good liturgy from all over the Seattle metro area.

His forthright article in “America” magazine and related interviews explain that he took action in making this proposal because he felt the new translations themselves would damage our prayer life, and the process that brought them about violated the rights of bishops, priests and laity who would be impacted by them.

My thanks, and for those local Catholics who share a Vatican II vision, go to Father Ryan for his proposal for evaluation of these new texts before widespread implementation.

— Patrick Callahan, Seattle

Big difference between psychopathic and psychotic

Oftentimes people are too critical of racism, sexism, anti-Semitism and homophobia.

I am saying this because I have mental-health issues and, contrastingly, citizens are allowed to say whatever stupid thing comes to mind when addressing this issue [“Haq guilty in shooting at Jewish Federation,” NWWednesday, Dec. 16].

People who make these criticisms do not even acknowledge that people like me read these criticisms. Very little is ever written or said that puts mental-health issues in a positive light. There is no other side to the argument — just stupid chatter.

When people are actively psychotic, they are much more likely to commit violent crimes; however, they are much more likely to point a weapon at a policeman in order to commit suicide than they are to murder a policeman.

Murdering policemen is usually psychopathic, not psychotic. There is a very big difference in the motives and perception of reality between the two states.

I believe Maurice Clemmons was just a psychopath. It is much more difficult to keep psychopaths off the streets because a person cannot be locked up for merely being psychopathic. And besides, psychopaths know how to con.

I am a caregiver and a student. I have a degree in psychology. I would like to see the complexity of mental illness portrayed in the media. The vulnerability of the mentally ill to crime and to the lack of due process exceeds our propensity to commit violent acts.

— Dale McCracken, Renton

California, US | Inspired Inventions

The philosophers stone also known as “the great work” was the search not so much for eternal life, or to turn lead into gold, but the search for perfection, for God.

Turning a human into an immortal represented a step closer to our original pre-fall condition, and turning lead into gold meant transmuting a base metal closer to perfection, gold being seen as the most perfect, the most god-like of all the metals. (Alchemists did in fact accidentally invent gold plating in the process.)

This search to turn lead into gold has, in modern times, become the symbol of the foolishness of the alchemists and of the middle ages in general… except they were absolutely right, metals can be transmuted and base metals can be turned into gold. Of course to do so, the alchemists would have needed a nuclear reactor.

The transmutation of metals is not uncommon. It happens in nuclear reactions both natural such as at the center of stars (the idea that lead can be turned to gold in the center of a star would have appealed greatly to the alchemists) and in man-made nuclear reactions such as in particle accelerators like the LHC and in conventional fission power reactors.

In 1980 at the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, Glenn T. Seaborg, a nobel prize winning chemist, achieved for the first confirmed time in history man-made transmutation of a base metal, bismuth, into gold. Granted it was only several thousand atoms, not even enough to see with the naked eye, and cost many many times more to create then it was worth, but nonetheless ‘the great work’ had been achieved. As it turns out, the philosophers stone is a well funded national laboratory.

(There is a rumor of a Soviet nuclear research facility, sometimes identified as the “Soviet nuclear center of Lake Baikal,” where in 1972, an experimental reactor lead shielding was found to have been transmuted to gold. Unfortunately there is little in the way of documentation to support this story.)

There is a further irony, this time on the alchemists. It is in fact much easier to turn gold into lead, then the other way around and gold left in a nuclear reactor will eventually turn into lead.

But then, Alchemists promising to find a way to turn gold into lead just doesn’t have the same ring to it.

Why aren’t they listening?

The Obama administration and socialistic progressive Democrats are trying to force a massive, costly health-care-reform bill upon the American people without the transparency that was promised [“Senate Dems appear ready to drop expanded Medicare,” News, Dec. 15].

How they plan to make cuts in costs while expanding coverage with an inefficient, money-draining bureaucracy remains to be seen. Why are they pressuring legislators to vote on bills and amendments they haven’t read and to some degree haven’t even seen?

Why has there been no discussion on portability of health insurance from state to state? What about some degree of tort reform?

Conservatives and moderates who brought these possibilities for discussion are being shut out. In the latest MSNBC poll, more than 75 percent of the American people are against Obama’s hasty and radical attempt to overhaul health care.

Why aren’t the progressives in Washington, D.C., listening?

— Laurie Hatakeda, Redmond

Kill this bill!

The current Senate health-care bill has become a travesty [“Cap-cost loophole cut in Senate bill,” News, Dec. 12].

It has been weakened to the point of becoming a gift to the insurance companies. It mandates that individuals must purchase health insurance from a private insurance company or be fined or jailed. Yet it provides nothing to control escalating insurance premiums — a public option.

Insurance companies must accept people with pre-existing conditions, but the insurance companies can set exorbitant premiums for these people. Insurance companies will be allowed to charge older people rates that are three times higher than for younger people.

This is not reform.

This is a gift on par with the Bush administration’s Medicare Part D gift to the pharmaceutical industry. The Senate bill is a guarantee of additional medical bankruptcies for millions of Americans.

Better no bill than one that preserves a dysfunctional health-care system and that transfers billions of taxpayer money to the insurance companies for outrageous executive salaries and bonuses, marketing expenses and shareholder dividends.

I am asking Sen. Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell to kill this bill rather than see a huge taxpayer bailout of the insurance industry.

— Kenneth J. Jones, Seattle

Freedom of religion and the Bill of Rights

The First Amendment and the nine proceeding amendments to the Constitution restrain only the government from impeding certain and specific rights of individuals [“First Amendment rights for all,” Opinion, Northwest Voices, Dec. 15]. The amendments do not necessarily restrain individuals from impeding the rights of other individuals.

Contained in the nine following amendments is an amendment citing “freedom of religion.” Catholic bishops are making a valiant attempt to circumvent this freedom through imposing their religious and institutional beliefs on the government and other individuals.

As they cloak their attempts in the garment of humanitarianism, they overstep the same bonds securing the very rights that allow them to exist, as they do, in the U.S.

If the Catholic bishops think they should have undue influence on government, they should be willing to give up their tax-exempt status, pay taxes on their wealth and register as a political-action group. Until such time as they cede their religious status for political status, they should channel their brand of humanitarianism to influence individuals, not government.

Again, this writer suggests a reading of the Bill of Rights when assuming their use to support specific actions and causes.

— Karen Clay, Port Orchard

An all-too-common misconception of conception

Pastor Frank Schuster, in his letter regarding the Catholic bishops’ position on abortion and health care [“First Amendment rights for all,” Opinion, Northwest Voices, Dec. 15], makes an all-too-common incorrect assumption that we all agree God places the soul in the child-to-be at the moment of conception —the point where the egg and sperm unite to create that first single-celled fertilized cell called the zygote.

I don’t agree with this assumption, nor do millions like me.

Dr. John Opitz, professor of pediatrics, genetics, obstetrics and gynecology, testified before President George W. Bush’s Council on Bioethics that some 40 percent of normal embryos are flushed out unnoticed in a woman’s normal menstrual flow; they are not miscarriages.

This fact plus several others raise serious questions about the belief that God places souls in eggs as they are being fertilized by sperm — the moment of conception.

What happens to all those souls up there in heaven who were never born, never had a thought, never had a brain? What about identical twins formed from a single fertilized egg with its one soul? Does each get half a soul?

My recommendation to all is that we do a little more thinking and a little less believing.

— Ralph Turman, Seattle

It’s been a little over a week since Facebook debuted a massive revamp of its privacy settings. EFF immediately followed that release with a detailed critique, concluding that the changes were “clearly intended to push Facebook users to publicly share even more information than before [and] will actually reduce the amount of control that users have over some of their personal data.”

Since then, EFF’s criticisms — and those of other vocal privacy advocates like ACLU, CDT, and EPIC — have been echoed throughout the mainstream press and across the web. As a Boston Globe editorial titled “Facebook’s Privacy Downgrade” correctly pointed out, “Most people who join Facebook do so because they want to share photos and messages with friends and family, not to expose their lives to the entire world.”

Notably, in a testament to the even-handedness of EFF’s critique, The Atlantic cited our blog post both in a story collecting negative reactions and in another story collecting positive reactions to the Facebook privacy revamp.

Not to be outdone by the media, Facebook users themselves were also immediately up in arms over the new changes. Negative comments flooded the Facebook Blog and the Facebook Site Governance page. Several of those comments were collected by the San Francisco Chronicle in a story titled “Facebook users speak out against new privacy settings”. Meanwhile, unhappy users used Facebook itself to organize opposition to the changes, with new groups being formed to protest the privacy revamp and older groups seeing renewed activity.

The past week’s privacy backlash culminated today with the filing of a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission by the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), joined by several other consumer and privacy groups. In the complaint, EPIC alleges that Facebook’s latest privacy changes are deceptive and unfair and asks that the FTC open an investigation and order Facebook to restore to its users the control over their privacy that has been lost in the transition. Considering the many tens of millions of American consumers who use Facebook, we hope and expect that the FTC will seriously consider the important questions raised by today’s complaint.

Deceptive food packaging is really irksome to a lot of consumers, especially since many people tend to choose products based on packaging size. It’s difficult to know just what 6 ounces of pita chips will look like out of the inflated bag, isn’t it?

Consumer Reports recently asked some companies to explain just what’s going on with that empty space or extra-large packaging. In their January article,”Air to Spare,” Consumer Reports describes their Black Hole Award, given to products with lots of empty air in the packaging. They mention that the Fair Packaging and Labeling Act allows “slack fill” if it serves a purpose like keeping a product from breaking or to discourage theft in the retail setting. However, Consumer Reports also adds that the FDA hasn’t charged a slack-fill violation in the last five years.

In their “Wasted Space“ article, Consumer Reports explains what a few companies had to say about the empty space in their products. For example, they asked the makers of Ocean saline spray, Fleming Pharmaceuticals, why they have a cardboard partition and empty space in their boxes.

Fleming explained that they sometimes offer a buy-one-get-one-free promotion and the same box is used whether the extra bottle is included or not. They added that they can’t change box sizes because that would present shelf space issues in stores.

You can read what the makers of other slack-space products like Uncle Ben’s, Post Shredded Wheat and Bayer One a Day had to say in the January 2010 issue of Consumer Reports.

Are you offended or confused by extra space in product packaging?

(Image via stock.xchng; Fleming Pharmaceuticals)

Post from: Blisstree

Explaining Deceptive Product Packaging

Filed under: Aftermarket, Sedan, Performance, Mercedes-Benz, Specialty, Luxury

Ask us to pick our favorite Mercedes-Benz products of all time and towards the top of that list sits this: The 1968-1972 300SEL 6.3. Introduced at the 1968 Geneva Motor Show, the original 6.3 was the product of one rogue Mercedes engineer who took the 109-series Type 300 SEL sedan and shoved the Type 600 limo’s 6.3-liter V8 underhood. The heart transplant was good for 250 horsepower, allowed the Teutonic sled to rocket to 60 mph in 7.4 seconds, top out at 136 mph and made it the fastest road-going sedan of the time.

Not only did the 6.3 out accelerate the Porsche 911 S and Jaguar E-Type 4.2, with it’s pneumatic suspension, anti-dive control and four-wheel disc brakes, it could dance as well as it could surge. And of course, Jay Leno has a 1969 example parked in his So. Cal. stable.

During a press event earlier this month, Jay and the Mercedes crew held a little soiree at his “shop” and revealed Leno’s plans to swap in the 6.2-liter V8 from the Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG into his 40-year-old sedan. The union of the 300SL and the 563-hp AMG-fettled mill apparently has Mercedes’ blessing, as the automaker’s engineerings are helping Jay with the swap. Naturally, we can’t wait to see and hear the results, and we’d expect a video of the reborn beast to be up in the coming months.

[Source: USAToday via Save The Enzos]

Jay Leno to cram SLS AMG’s V8 into 1969 Mercedes 6.3 originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 17 Dec 2009 18:28:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Reader Vincent Clement alerts us to yet another story of a copyright overreach up in Canada, this time involving the owner of a small independent record shop in Ottawa who was charged with copyright infringement and has pleaded guilty, rather than fight it. The details are a bit confusing, but it sounds like the police raided his shop, and took a bunch of CDs, claiming they violated copyright — but reports suggest that these are mostly legal imports that simply haven’t been packaged for sale in Canada. In some cases, the “infringing” CDs were actually CDs of a local band that the store owner himself helped finance. In other words, these are the sorts of CDs you can find in pretty much any independent record store, and are the sorts of things purchased by true fans and collectors who want to own everything they can get. These aren’t the types of products that are “pirated” or bought by people looking to avoid supporting a band. It’s the opposite. But, the Canadian record labels and police have now “cracked down.” Hope this makes the US politicians claiming that Canada is a piracy haven happy.

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“A Day in the Life of NYTimes.com” [bits.blogs.nytimes.com] includes two videos (also shown below) that show the traffic to NYTimes.com on June 25, 2009, the day Michael Jackson died. While on video focuses on US-only traffic, the other has a worldwide view. The animated maps also include a subtle visual hint of night time by revealing the city illumination at night.The 24-hour period of web log data is compressed into a little over a minute and a half.

The data used to create these maps come from roughly 15 Web servers. Some of the mobile bursts on the maps are a result of compressing the data.

Thnkx Owen!

Filed under: Geneva Motor Show, Crossover, Mini

Mini‘s history doesn’t just include producing attractive, efficient city cars — it’s done some damage in the rally circuit. But while BMW’s 2001 reincarnation of the storied British brand has been a success on the sales front, it hasn’t taken the motorsports world by storm. As previously reported, that could change with Mini’s upcoming five-door people hauler.

The Countryman will reportedly come in several variants, including a GTI version with similar power to the Cooper S or a BMW-sourced 2.0-liter diesel capable of 200 hp. Word on the street is that Prodrive is working on a WRC concept due to debut at the Geneva Motor Show in March.

We’re looking forward to seeing the production Countryman in person, but there is some question as to when the micro crossover will finally be on the showroom floor. AutoCar says the Countryman will arrive in September, while Mini-focused site Motoring File says the crossover may be delayed until 2011. If the Rally-ready Countryman does in fact come to fruition, Mini could once again have a mighty mouse ready to take on its larger competition, and that could be fun to watch.

[Source: AutoCar]

REPORT: Mini CUV could come to WRC originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 17 Dec 2009 17:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Europe, Opel, Vauxhall, UK

Interim Opel CEO Nick Reilly has been overseeing the German firm for all of six weeks. And over that scant month and a half, he’s conjured the way forward for Opel and Vauxhall and seems determined to leave nothing undone. Chatting with Auto Motor und Sport, Reilly intends to give Opel a little SUV on the Corsa platform, an Opel version of the Mini, a continuation of the Agila and an all-new electric car.

Opel would also be greater master of its own fate: Opel’s tie with Suzuki will continue even with VW’s recent move, but other Opels like the next Corsa would be developed in Germany. Such a vision, along with his already avowed hybrid push, would keep Opel exceedingly busy over the next five years. If his plans are achieved, it could put them in a very good spot come 2013. But there’s a long way to go before all of that happens — in the short-term GM first has to sort out the funds to keep the company running properly at all.

[Source: Autocar | Image: Thomas Lohnes/Getty]

REPORT: Opel/Vauxhall CEO plans five-year product offensive originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 17 Dec 2009 17:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Great day in history, ironic photo of past

Editor, The Times:

It was a great day for Boeing with the successful launch of the new Boeing 787 Dreamliner’s first flight.

I could not help but react to the picture on page A17 that so illuminated the reason for the two- year manufacturing delay [“Building the 787,” News, Dec. 15], as well the long strike by the Machinists union.

The photo of June Trubshaw holding a picket sign that reads, “Fair Contract Now,” says all that needs to be said about the 787 delay.

Every three years the union complains that the contract is unfair and then the negotiations begin on a new agreement. Three years later, the previously agreed to agreement is unfair and new negotiations begin again.

The “Fair Contract Now” sign is a symbol of the overall malaise that has taken over the production of new aircraft in the Puget Sound.

The opportunity was available during the recent showdown between the union and Boeing for the union to eliminate a second production line in South Carolina. The union refused to believe that Boeing would relocate production out of the Pacific Northwest, and now there is a new 787 production line being established in South Carolina.

I hope Trubshaw is satisfied that her effort, on behalf of her union, helped Boeing to make the decision it did.

The picture says more than a thousand words.

— James M. Clark, Edmonds

Big whoop — enjoy your flight

It’s a new plane with new innovations and improvements, which hasn’t made its way to the airline industry yet [“Spirits soar on 787’s wings,” page one, Dec. 16].

When the new Boeing 787 Dreamliner does make it to the airline industry, chances are it will take to the bank whatever cost-effective money-saving measures were invented, and innovative designs will either not be passed on to customers or be considered luxuries worth charging more for.

By the time the airlines are done picking it apart and parsing the extra tiers of cost, there will be so many layers of haves and have nots that those in the bottom half of the bottom tiers will feel more like outcasts than valued passengers.

And for all the gee-whiz improvements, passengers at the gate, delayed, denied and frustrated will be in no mood to care.

Boeing’s engineering feats will be wasted by airlines more interested in salvaging profit at the expense of customer satisfaction.

Enjoy your flight.

— Mike Moore, Kent

Making Washington a right-to-work state

Indeed “Strike history colors Boeing decisions,” [Opinion, editorial, Dec. 9], and the Pacific Northwest lost, as The Times noted.

Consider this only the latest in a series of Boeing decisions. The International Association of Machinists leadership still considers this move to South Carolina a company error and no fault of theirs.

Don’t expect a change in attitude.

Unions have a history of escalating behavior, and kill or cripple industries (coal, railroads, airlines), companies (Ford, GM and Chrysler), even countries (France and Germany). To avoid a similar fate, the Pacific Northwest needs community action to preserve aerospace jobs.

It will take determined political leadership, but changing Washington to a right-to-work state would have the desired effect. It would also give the governor options, which Gov. Chris Gregoire currently lacks, to deal with the state budget crises in a logical fashion.

— Lionel C. Bohrer, Federal Way

Editorial ignores historical outsourcing facts

The recent editorial claiming that Boeing’s moves to the South was not outsourcing ignores the historical facts.

In the 1950s, long before jobs were being sent to Mexico or Asia, the Southern states, determined to preserve their low-wage economies and make sure that unions would not force blacks and whites to work side-by-side for the same wage, instituted so-called right-to-work laws.

Corporations, particularly the auto industry, moved jobs to the low-wage South, devastating much of the Northern auto industry.

This was the original outsourcing, and we are feeling its effects even today.

— David Echols, Kirkland

Not all Laurelhurst residents oppose Seattle Children’s

The Laurelhurst Community Club (LCC), through its president, Jeannie Hale, continues to voice criticism of the proposed expansion plan by Seattle Children’s Hospital [“Not that they’re self-absorbed or anything,” Ron Judd column, Nov. 22].

As a resident of Laurelhurst, I have become increasingly concerned that Hale is perceived as a representative of the entire Laurelhurst neighborhood.

This is far from the truth.

After a review of the expansion plan by all neighboring communities and many revisions by Children’s, a recommendation for approval was submitted to the Seattle City Council and a response is expected in 2010. Yet Hale continues her criticism, requesting contributions from Laurelhurst residents to cover LCC’s legal fees.

While Children’s has agreed to millions of dollars in enhancements to mitigate impacts on Laurelhurst, Hale persists in her opposition.

As a longtime supporter of Children’s, I’d recommend to Hale and her fellow naysayers: Let the hospital do its job in creating a future where no child is turned away for lack of room. Consider the voices of people like me who live in Laurelhurst and thank our lucky stars for this remarkable pediatric facility.

My family has been blessed more than once by care received at Children’s. No emergency helicopter noise or traffic congestion on Sand Point Way has ever led me to bemoan the hospital’s presence in my neighborhood.

Those sights and sounds are manna from heaven — just ask any family whose child has been treated there.

— Linda Wold, Seattle

Madison Valley flooding and a lame-duck mayor

What strange coincidental fate that Nicole Brodeur’s column “Mayor takes a few last questions” [NWTuesday, Dec. 15] on the exit of Mayor Greg Nickels was next to the story on the Madison Valley flooding lawsuit [“Suit: City allowed flooding,” NWTuesday, Dec. 15].

In the flooding story, one can find all the rotten underbelly of incompetence, waste and political management found throughout Seattle because, in my opinion, Mayor Nickels was far more interested in his personal federal and national audience, than he was in the efficient operation of Seattle.

The city’s response to the flooding in Madison Valley was to remove the most vulnerable homes, dig a big expensive hole where those homes once stood, and next year waste taxpayer money installing a large drainage pipeline that will not be able to alleviate flooding.

Was this solution engineered or politically engineered by spin and legal wrangling over the drowning of a Madison Valley resident in her basement due to flooding?

The present city attorney was also thankfully replaced by voters, so Mike McGinn, here is your first opportunity to save all the city residents and taxpayers substantial amounts of money, prevent significant and needless project disruption and solve several other legal problems at the same time, all while demonstrating you are true to your election campaign statements and promises.

— Geoffrey K. Willson, Seattle

Nickels’ lasting gun ban

It is a fine thing to have a watchdog monitoring our constitutional rights. Bob Warden is to be commended for ensuring that our right to carry our concealed weapons everywhere is protected [“Pistol-packing attorney files challenge to Nickels’ gun ban,” NWSaturday, Nov. 28].

The audacity of Mayor Greg Nickels in trying to keep guns out of city parks and recreational areas has to be condemned and overturned. How can our children and grandchildren’s safety be guaranteed on the playfields and in the swimming areas in the city unless anyone who chooses to carry a gun there has that right?

No one should have their Second Amendment rights infringed at any time. It would be like limiting someone’s freedom of speech to yell “fire” in a crowded theater as a joke — Oh, right. You can limit the right of free speech in cases like that.

Well, thank goodness the state doesn’t allow such limitations on guns. Way to go Bob.

— Bruce Colwell, Burien

And getting out of billions of dollars in taxes

Citigroup getting out of billions of dollars of taxes as part of repaying TARP funds is appalling and disgusting [“Citigroup’s payback milestone for industry,” News, Dec. 15].

Should someone be going to jail for corruption?

Citigroup gets legislation after they purchase traveler’s insurance, which after the fact legalizes the deal. Through expensive bailouts, Citigroup was kept from failing last year — almost failing because of inept management, lack of prudence in making loans and disregard of risk in making investments.

Special legislation is not enough. Accounting standards have to be weakened so the bank doesn’t appear to be insolvent. Still we go further and the government agrees to forgo billions of dollars in tax.

This situation calls for jail time, not tax breaks.

Meanwhile, I represent clients facing audits by the IRS. Although occasionally my clients’ records aren’t perfect, they may be down on their luck or near the end of their rope. What can I tell them? You’re just a small guy, a peon who has to go with the flow?

My previous strong support for the Obama administration is eroding fast. Corruption is coming out of hiding into the daily headlines.

— Norman H. Roberts, Seattle