The past few weeks have shown that the U.S. president can a) do whatever he wants with total impunity, and b) punish those whose acts of conscience command them to speak the truth in opposition. 
The wall that formerly separated the U.S. from an authoritarian regime has been effectively demolished.
We either turn this around immediately, or we surrender the freedoms for which our brave ancestors fought and died.
Strange news seems to be limitless in supply. From this article:
The UK’s phase-out date of unabated coal power is to be brought forward by one year to 2024, Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced today as he officially kicked off the countdown to this autumn’s COP26 Climate Summit in Glasgow. (more…)
Back in 2009, within a few months after 2GreenEnergy announced that it would conduct a no-charge review of any renewable energy business plan, someone showed me the very idea shown at left: converting the energy from spinning heat dissipators into electricity. I told him that he should begin by measuring the total amount of power available in the best of conditions, and determining the value of the energy they would produce in the course of the hottest day of the year. (more…)
A mere 138 dead Salvadorans, butchered by the violence they were desperately trying to escape? We can live with that.
What we can’t deal with, to use the words of Donald Trump verbatim, is the “Hispanic invasion of Texas.” He’s used the words “predator,” “invasion,” “alien,” “killer,” “criminal” and “animal” at his rallies while discussing immigration more than 500 times.
As a result, we have far more concern for dogs getting hit by cars.
As we know, average temperatures around the globe are rising, but some spots are warming much faster than others.From the Washington Post: Just days after the earth saw its warmest January on record, Antarctica has broken its warmest temperature ever recorded. (more…)
Here’s the problem: adults of good fitness average between 50 and 150 watts power output through an hour of vigorous exercise, meaning that you’re going to be “powering your house” for a day with 0.1 kWhs. Since the average American uses 30 kWhrs per day, you’re going to need 300 such bicyclists.
The map here was created from a composite of readings from satellites and marine vessels. From Science Magazine:
The oceans’ great continent-wrapping currents, each one moving as much water as all the world’s rivers combined, can rightly be considered the planet’s circulatory system. And this circulation, it appears, has started to thump faster: For nearly 25 years the currents have been rapidly speeding up, partly because of global warming. (more…)
When I become a grandfather, it’s (vaguely) possible that I’ll be consulted once more as to what objects belong in a child’s playroom. At left is a good example of what, IMO, doesn’t belong there: training in robo-consumerism.
When you consider how many really cool possibilities there are that teach science, appreciating and creating art, early reading, the behavior of fish, lizards, snakes, and hamsters, it’s hard to understand why a parent would favor an indoctrination into the habits of those sad adults who accumulate stuff.
All this becomes more important with each passing year, as it gets increasingly clear that infinite growth is impossible on a planet of finite size. Sustainability implies the intelligent management of our precious resources, not gobbling them up simply because we can.
Rightfully, Mitt Romney is getting a lot of atta-boys this week for the courage he showed in voting to convict Trump. He stood up and did what he believed to be right, knowing the consequences, i.e., being bathed in his colleagues’ opprobrium. (more…)
It seems like progressives are right, at least in part, when they claim agency in the economic collapse of companies like ExxonMobil, whose market cap has plummeted to the tune of $184 billion (40%) over the last six years. (more…)
