Last February, NPR's Planet Money examined a unique strategy by Ecuador's government to preserve its Yasuni National Park, an isolated and wild place reached best by hours in a canoe. This is one of those places with amazing biodiversity, with more tree species in a hectare than most more northern countries have within their borders ( Read more... )

But hey, don't take my word for it. Check out some of the science!

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Just caught an episode of This American Life called "Unfit For Work: The Startling Rise Of Disability In America". It turns out those on disability don't get counted on the unemployment roles (since, of course, they are classed as unable to work). ( It gets interesting! )

Several years ago, I tripped upon something that puzzled me.

Through family tales passed down through the generations and backed by literally boxes of original documents including diaries and correspondence, Randall Keynes' book Annie's Box recounts the family life of his great-great grandparents, Charles and Emma Darwin. At one point, the ( Read more... )

It's old, so I apologize if this is old news to you, but seriously, check out Chris Martenson's podcast interview with Frances Koster. Dr. Koster runs something called The Optimistic Futurist, where he documents efforts to improve food, energy and fuel security in ways that make local investments in one's community both profitable and of benefit ( Read more... )

brucenstein's recent contribution regarding tariffs set on Chinese-made solar panels got me to thinking. There are not just one issue to discuss here - the more obvious and immediate being the way China's government funds industrial activity - but two. We must also consider what kind of electrical grid we have and what kind we want for the future ( Read more... )

Bad Astronomer Phil Plait debunked the notion of an approaching ice age recently, a spurious theory based on misconceptions regarding the sun's magnetic cycle:

The Sun has a magnetic cycle, its magnetic field waxing and waning in strength roughly every 11 years. The strength and complexity of the solar field governs a lot of the surface activity, ( Read more... )

God helps those
who help themselves.

- Benjamin Franklin

I just finished Thomas Geoghegan's Were You Born on the Wrong Continent? and found, tucked away as an almost parenthetical observation, something absolutely not a part of his narrative thesis yet so crucial, something so obvious that I should have seen it years ago, something that helps ( Read more... )

By now, everyone has heard about what is happening seemingly all at once in Wisconsin, Michigan and Ohio. Republican governors are trying to ram "emergency" legislation through their senates and houses that would strip the most robust union demographic, public employees, of their collective bargaining rights ( Read more... )

"This is about people being persuaded to spend money we don't have
to buy things we don't need to create impressions that won't last
on people we don't care about."

I've got some work in the pipeline that addresses Mr. Jackson's observations. I think I'll read his book first, though.