Cambridge Physicist David MacKay has written a book on sustainable energy, and is giving it away on his website. Just shy of 400 pages, it’s an extended back-of-the-envelope calculation comparing potential sustainable energy generation capacity to likely consumption.
In case that sounds a bit boring, let me assure you that it isn’t. MacKay’s writing [...]
Also posted in Science, environment |
By Kevin | November 24, 2008
Clive Thompson has a fascinating little piece on the interconnection of online content and t-shirts in this month’s Wired magazine. We all know that most of the bottom (i.e. money) dropped out of the internet a while ago. Many sites that once vied for cashflow from online content have since gone extinct. Thompson describes some [...]
By Kevin | November 3, 2008
I guess that it’s time for a little preemptive history. Tomorrow is the big day. The reality of George W. Bush leaving the office of President is finally feeling at-hand and incontestable. The general sense across the nation is one of relief, as the very “worst” that could happen is that someone marginally more competent [...]
By James | October 18, 2008
As I sit here in my living room, drinking a rather fine beer and watching The Great Escape, I often wonder if I shouldn’t just get it over with and outsource my entire weekly post to The Times. After all, I link to them nearly every time I sit down in front of a computer, [...]
By Kevin | September 29, 2008
Though my last post was meant for rest and relaxation, this one cannot be. This is it, folks! My generation (current twentysomethings–are we Gen Y or Gen Z??) has recently had its trial-by-fire, its fertility rite signifying complicity in the big “E”: it’s the ECONOMY, stupid! I am going to be as precise as I [...]
By James | September 26, 2008
Well, I think Chris has put it pretty well. I know who I’m voting for, and I can’t wait for the election to be over. I really don’t want to talk about politics, but I feel like I have a responsibility to cover the debate. So here we go…
Big coup for Obama right off the [...]
I realized this morning that I had missed my day again. Oh well, this gives me a chance to talk about politics since it’s the day of the debate. I normally don’t like to write about politics because everyone else does and I have nothing special to contribute, but here I go. Politics, at least [...]
I’ve been hearing about these data from Larry Bartel’s book Unequal Democracy for awhile now:
There is a nice op-ed on these data by economist Alan Blinder in the New York Times. The pattern is quite striking: everyone does better under democrats and inequality decreases, slightly. No wonder Republicans try to distract voters by talking about [...]
The insistence by some biologists that we must halt economic growth in order to save the environment has bothered me for some time, but I was prompted to write about it now because yet another, albeit minor, group has adopted a policy statement on the issue. That a naturalist group has agreed to this nonsense [...]
That economic growth, however defined, has caused environmental degradation (e.g. pollution, biodiversity loss, depletion of natural resources) is unquestionable. As I discuss below, it does not follow from this premise that policies aimed at halting economic growth are optimal (or even good) for environmental protection. Nevertheless, a sizable minority, if not majority, of ecologists and [...]
Also posted in December 2007 | Tagged Conservation |