“If you don’t read the newspaper, you’re uninformed. If you read the newspaper, you’re misinformed.” — Mark Twain Anymore, despite knowing that they cannot believe much of what they read or hear there, most people get their news from the internet. If not there, then the evening news or cable news. When it comes to [...]
“The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance; it is the illusion of knowledge.” — Stephen Hawking Beginning in March 2020, the Chemical Safety Board (CSB) began requiring that all facilities report all significant chemical releases. That way, they didn’t have to rely on media reports to know what was happening. After a slow start, [...]
“I think the coop should be held financially responsible to all the residents that were evacuated and cover all costs in the deployment of all emergency personnel!!! A thousand dollars or better per household!!! Payable by the end of next week!!!” – Ron Follis, commenting on the Lincoln County Emergency Management Facebook post Shortly before [...]
“This hour I tell things in confidence. I might not tell everybody, but I will tell you.” — Walt Whitman I once worked at a plant that produced performance chemicals. Performance chemicals are sold based on what they do rather than what they are. The key specifications are the performance specifications, not the composition specifications. [...]
“In limits, there is freedom.” — Julia Cameron There is great comfort in knowing that even the most hazardous substances have safe limits. One molecule of a substance is not enough to be hazardous. However, there is some concentration—especially for gases and vapors—that is too high to be exposed to safely. A lot of effort [...]
“If I’d known I was going to live so long, I would have taken better care of myself.” — Billy Noonan The 1967 film, The Graduate, has one of the most famous lines in all of cinema. Mr. McGuire is giving advice to recent college graduate, Benjamin Braddock, played by Dustin Hoffman. Mr. McGuire: “Just [...]
“Rather than a prosecutor saying, ‘You have nothing to fear if you have done nothing,’ a more accurate portrayal would be ‘If I decide you have done nothing wrong, you have nothing to fear.’ ” — Sidney Dekker I hate it when a prosecutor, especially a politically ambitious prosecutor, decides that the best way to [...]
“ ‘When I use a word,’ Humpty Dumpty said in a rather scornful tone, ‘it means just what I choose it to mean neither more or less.’ ” — Lewis Carroll, in Through the Looking-Glass When Administrative Law Judge Richard DeBenedetto ruled against OSHA in the case of Secretary of Labor v. Meer Corporation (No. [...]
“I believe life is a series of near misses. A lot of what we ascribe to luck is not luck at all. It’s seizing the day and accepting responsibility for your future.” — Howard Schutz A chemical incident in Southern California unfolded over the 2026 Memorial Day Weekend that captured the attention of every major [...]
“Do you fix a wheel that isn’t broken, or do you wait until the cart collapses?” — Jodi Picoult During the week beginning Thursday, May 21, 2026, and going over the Memorial Day holiday weekend, our phones lit up with queries from friends and acquaintances about a series of chemical mishaps and disasters that got [...]
