Have you ever noticed the fascination many Americans have with the U.S. Civil War of 1860-65? You don’t see World War I re-enactments. You don’t run across people who self-describe as “War of 1812 buffs.” Among other things, the Civil War propelled Abraham Lincoln into his position as, per consensus of historians, the greatest U.S. president, largely based on his tenacity in keeping the Union together. (more…)
Here’s another installment on the tech sector from my colleague Fritz Maffry. – ed 
I got a laugh out of the meme here, but it reminded me to mention something serious: the Impossible Burger is about to be rolled out in the ~18K Burger Kings around the U.S., and sold through retail grocery stores for the first time in its history. (more…)
As the United States continues its plunge into ignorance and hate, we often hear people ask, “How much worse can it get?” Though that’s normally posed as a rhetorical question, our country keeps coming up with some really excellent answers, as shown here. (more…)
What’s the underlying cause of all this gun violence? How did the United States come to have more than one mass shooting per day (251 in the last 216 days of 2019 thus far)?
The truth is that no one knows, certainly not singing-songwriter Cheryl Wheeler, who penned the masterpiece below 22 years ago, well before this tragedy rose to the epidemic proportions of today. “Maybe it’s the Bible, maybe it’s the lack. Maybe it’s the music, maybe it’s the crack.” (more…)
Green plants sequester CO2 as they grow by converting it via photosynthesis into carbohydrates. In almost all cases, these more complicated carbon molecules are broken down after the organism’s death and the CO2 is re-released in to the atmosphere; this is true whether that material is burned, digested by other life forms, or decays naturally. (more…)
Building-integrated solar PV (BIPV) isn’t new, so what’s all the fuss about Elon Musk’s venture into the industry? Answer: Elon Musk. A name not to be trifled with.
Analysts say he won’t be able to meet his target (1000 solar roofs per week by the end of the year) while he’s still trying to complete his “Gigafactory 2” (energy storage) in Upstate New York. Personally, I wouldn’t bet against him if he said he’d be playing middle linebacker for the Chicago Bears by the end of the year.
We often speculate as to what’s going to be required to redirect our civilization onto a sustainable track. Maybe it’s public funding of cleantech R&D. (more…)
There are probably at least a dozen different speculations that could be offered as to why American education is such a train-wreck. My personal belief is that, because our political system has a short-term view of success, our elected “leaders” refuse to invest in anything that doesn’t bring them immediate glory. (more…)
Phyllis Mueller, my business partner throughout the 1990s, was doggedly hard-working, and incredibly insightful. At one point she told me, “Everyone has brief moments of clarity in life that are clear messages that we’ve gone the wrong way, occasions in which we can see immediately that we need to get back on the right track.”
I would suggest this to the policeman in this picture: “Pardon me, but you seem to find yourself removing a nun in handcuffs who had come to protest peacefully the cruel treatment of children at the southern U.S. border. To me, that’s a pretty good indication that something’s gone wrong for you. You may want to use this moment of lucidity to make a new beginning.”
