Aquanomics on boycotts, in a review of Jared Diamond’s Collapse

The best way to get change is to hit the company in their PR. Want to end “Blood diamonds”? Boycott DeBeers, not Sierra Leone. Want to stop deforestation? Boycott Ikea, not Indonesia. DeBeers and Ikea have done a LOT more to protect market share than these corrupt governments (of corrupt people) will ever do. Thank [...]

Class of 2010 set to flood US job market as ’09 graduates wait tables

This is exactly what happened in Japan in 90′s due to the pop in real estate bubble and resulting deflation and recession. They can’t get out of it. It’s called the lost decade(s).

The fundamentals of radical, transnational counterinsurgency

Counterinsurgency doctrine is the symptom of an idea more primeval and dangerous: violence is the solution. [...]

Electric vehicles in 1910 had the same range as they do now

Then and Now. 100 miles

Yes, the EVs of today go faster but are also heavier and use more electricity internally (like power mirrors, etc.) So the range is still about 100 miles.

One hundred years ago, electric vehicle owners were hoping for a battery breakthrough that would increase range. We’re still waiting.

LowtechMagazine [...]

The left vs. the working class

Flickr image. elhamalawy

Red Star Times has a thoughtful rant about how the left too often shoots itself in the foot when not backstabbing the working class it claims to champion.

In England, a country that is sometimes facetiously described as having a Trotskyist under ever rock, the trade unions and the Labour Party [...]

Manure as power source

Methane from manure will help heat Middlebury College

Data centers also looking at cow manure as power source. 10,000 cows could power one large data center.

This is a great idea. But they need to think big. Forget 10,000 cows. We simply need to harness all the manure currently issuing from BP and we [...]

Thank You, BP!

Photo. skooksie on Flickr

Cake in window at Breaux Mart on Magazine in New Orleans

Feds order BP to put all Gulf oil spill data on Internet

NOLA

As it becomes clear that BP has under-reported the amount of oil gushing into the Gulf of Mexico from its blown-out well, the federal government is now demanding that the company publicly share all of its plans, reports and video on the Internet.

Rethink Afghanistan: Broken Government’s Body Count

The government is broken, in Afghanistan and the United States, and if we don’t use government the way it’s supposed to function, if we continue to play media games with our politics, the death toll will only get worse. [...]

California water wars. The rules just drastically changed

Flickr photo by Tsja!

A recent California Superior Court decision ruled that those who illegally divert water from streams and rivers can be sued because the consequent lack of water downstream, with its resultant problems, constitutes a violation of the public trust.

Among other things, this means governmental entities that are charged with maintaining [...]