I finally got around to reading Thomas L. Friedman’s Hot, Flat, and Crowded. Friedman is one of the few columnists that I read on a regular basis and the book is on an interesting subject, so I was expecting to enjoy reading it. I didn’t. While I don’t agree with all his ideas, the main [...]
One important issue not receiving enough attention is efficiency increases forced by population growth. The Earth is a finite system: resources do not grow as population does. This means that to maintain the same results (standard of living, &c.) as population grows, efficiency must increase. This is important for issues such as land use, food [...]
Must watch! This is scary. We had come to expect stuff like this from G. W. Bush, but not Obama. He did vote for the renewal of the KGB act, so we can’t expect too much.
Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy
Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News [...]
Yesterday Obama sent an important memo to the heads of departments and agencies in the executive branch. The President wrote:
A democracy requires accountability, and accountability requires
transparency. As Justice Louis Brandeis wrote, “sunlight is said
to be the best of disinfectants.” In our democracy, the Freedom
of Information Act (FOIA), which encourages accountability through
transparency, is the [...]
I wrote this in response to Tim Pape–my city councilman–who asked that I explain my reasoning for supporting the light pollution ordinance. It passed, but it seems that most people in Fort Wayne oppose it. I think the opposition exists for three reasons:
A significant fraction of Fort Wayne is anti-government, not just anti-bad-government.
This ordinance was [...]
The City of Fort Wayne passed a light pollution ordinance this week. The quantity of criticism of this commonsense law is amazing. I certainly agree that this shouldn’t need to be a law, but unfortunately, it does. The only problem I see with this ordinance is that it only applies to residential properties. It is [...]
In surprising good news, the Fort Wayne city council passed–and the mayor signed–a residential light pollution law. This is something I have supported for at least twelve years. I can see the point of some on the council that this shouldn’t be a law, but their reasoning is wrong. It shouldn’t need to be a [...]
Now is the perfect time to remind everyone of the Search for Terrestrial Intelligence (STI) Project. The major (and minor) political parties are doing their best to prove this effort futile.
“Drill, Baby, Drill!” We have heard this phrase constantly since the Republican convention. The thought behind this chant is that increased American oil production will lead to lower gas prices. This idea is based on supply and demand. With a constant demand, increasing supply should lower the price of a resource. Drilling in the US [...]