Posted in Culture, Economic Development, Emerging Topics, Energy, Land Use, Transportation on May 15, 2008 | No Comments »
Popular Science has a quick blurb about the First Annual BioMass Conference, which, in part, sought to dismiss new controversy about biofuels leading to global high food prices. An excerpt:
More to the point, though, is the mistaken notion that we have to use food crops for fuel production. In test fields in Minnesota, Tilman and [...]
Posted in Culture, Uncategorized on May 12, 2008 | No Comments »
At the risk of venturing into the dangerous territory of wholesale weblog digression, I want to make a quick comment on the Flyers-Penguin best of 7 playoff series.
When I first moved to Philadelphia, I was pretty amazed at how many people watched/enjoyed professional hockey. Back in Virginia - and almost everywhere else I’ve been besides [...]
Posted in Culture, Emerging Topics, tagged drake equation, fermi paradox, holodeck, Nick Bostrom, the matrix, virtual reality on May 12, 2008 | No Comments »
File under ‘generally irrelevant to the general thrust of this blog,’ there’s a neat article in the Brisbane Times about the probably eventuality of totally immersive virtual realities (like holodecks of Star Trek fame or the matrix from The Matrix), and its social/societal implications.
The main question is of course that, if once entered, would we [...]
Posted in Culture, Economic Development, Energy, Land Use, Transportation on May 12, 2008 | No Comments »
Just to underscore what I was saying about adjusting habits in the face of increased gas prices, a friend pointed out a recent NYT article on that very topic [free reg. req'd].
Mass transit systems around the country are seeing standing-room-only crowds on bus lines where seats were once easy to come by. Parking lots at [...]
Posted in Culture, Economic Development, Energy, tagged Burma, Cyclone, Food Crisis, Recession on May 9, 2008 | No Comments »
First, sorry that I haven’t posted in a good while. I’d like to blame the fact that I’m busy (and I am), but I found time to do it before. I think between finals, a high-tempo work and commuting schedule, and fruitless weekend excursions to New York, I’ve neglected to write even though it’s been [...]
Posted in Culture, Energy, Land Use, Transportation, tagged Bolt, BoltBus, Bus, Culture, Energy, Transportation on April 12, 2008 | No Comments »
I’m on my way to New York City (THE City, as it turns out), and I decided to be a little unconventional this time and take a new busline, called BoltBus. I saw the advertisement, well, on the side of one of their buses on the highway with their slogan “Bolt for a Buck.”
Doing anything [...]
Posted in Culture, tagged American South, Confederacy, Confederate History Month, Culture, Prejudice on April 6, 2008 | 4 Comments »
Jon Henke, guest blogging for Megan McArdle, has a very interesting post on her Atlantic Monthly blog, discussing the controversies surrounding Confederate History Month (April) and, inevitably the nature of the Confederate ‘battle flag’ (popularized, ex post facto) that still flies rather ubiquitously in certain areas in the American South. It’s an understatement to say [...]
Posted in Culture, Economic Development, Energy, Land Use, Transportation, tagged Culture, diesel, Economic Development, Energy, Land Use, oil, trains, Transportation, trucks on April 3, 2008 | No Comments »
The other day, as I was walking into work at the Labor & Industry building in Harrisburg, I was startled by the sounds of dozens (hundreds?) of big-rig trucks circling the capitol complex, ensnarling the whole area in massive gridlock and collectively drowning the entire area with the screams of their horns. What was going [...]
Posted in Culture, Economic Development, Education, Human Capital, tagged Culture, Economic Development, Education, Human Capital on March 29, 2008 | No Comments »
Andrew Coulson, of Cato and co-author of the 2007 study End It, Don’t Mend It: What to Do with NCLB, has an eye-opening piece published at TCS Daily on school choice and the right’s gradual abandonment of school choice in deference to centralization as an antidote to the problems plaguing our education system. His argument, [...]
Posted in Culture, Economic Development on March 28, 2008 | No Comments »
In the Winter edition of City Journal, possibly one of the finest public policy publications produced today, Guy Sorman has an interesting and instructive article on the effect of the Chicago Boys – that is, the Milton Friedman-molded Chicago School of Economics – on Chile’s dramatic economic growth between Allende’s failed, ruinous collectivization and the [...]
