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Germany says auf Wiedersehen to nuclear power, guten Tag to renewables

For a people as addicted to order as the Germans, this country is floundering in uncertainty. The economy has sputtered to a post-World War II record 5 million unemployed. Chancellor Gerhard Schröder’s exhausted left-of-center coalition is close to coughing up the fall elections to conservatives. And soccer fans aren’t even sure if their team can […]

Pup Tense

Parks ban dogs from hiking trails to protect wildlife You might find it heartwarming to see Rover frolicking in the wilderness, but residents of the backcountry may not share your joy. Hiking with dogs is hugely popular, but some park rangers and biologists worry hikers don’t follow the rules, letting their dogs run riot and […]

This Is Why We Don’t Clean

Bacteria-killing goods may threaten human health and environment Antimicrobial products — towels, sponges, cutting boards, and other household goods that promise to kill bacterial beasties and fungi — are now a $1 billion-a-year industry, but they may be harming human health and the environment. Triclosan, a popular microbe-icide, can combine with chlorine in tap water […]

Balked Alaska

House GOPers oppose legislative maneuver to open Arctic Refuge Two dozen House Republicans have publicly criticized the GOP leadership’s plan to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling by attaching language to a filibuster-proof budget measure. In a letter to Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) and other House leaders, the rebel GOPers — including three […]

Doubter Darkness

Another climate-skeptic argument bites the dust Another argument treasured by climate-change skeptics may be headed the way of the dinosaurs. For years, doubters have made much of the fact that the troposphere (the lower part of the earth’s atmosphere) didn’t seem to be warming as fast as the earth’s surface, as climate models had predicted […]

Kit Me Baby One More Time

Last chance to donate to Grist and save yourself from global warming! That feverish, woozy feeling you have? It’s not the warming planet. It’s guilt! You haven’t donated to Grist yet, have you? It’s OK, we forgive you — if you chip in $50 or more now, we’ll even enter you to win one of […]

Alan AtKisson on Sweden

Delightful.

Update [2005-8-12 10:25:6 by Dave Roberts]: Iceland sounds pretty cool too!

Being ‘right’ about peak oil is only the first step

All right, I've been meaning to write a post on this forever, but a comment from The Oil Drum's Prof. Goose finally lit a fire under my butt:

It seems to me that one of the keys to the puzzle of why people don't understand peak oil and other sustainability issues is innumeracy and a lack of understanding spatial functions.

Ah, so that's it! But wait, it gets better:

However, getting 100*ln 2(~=70, btw)/rate per annum=doubling time in years through your head ain't that hard...is it?

Oh, well heck no!

But let's get to the point:

One of the main points of Dr. Bartlett's lecture is that "we cannot let other people do our thinking for us." So, so true.

Um, no. So, so false.

In fact, we let other people do our thinking for us constantly. If we couldn't outsource some -- nay, most -- of our thinking, we would be screwed indeed. People think about their families, kids, boy/girlfriends, health, school, job, finances, parents, weight ... now they have to learn calculus?

I'm not trying to be cute. People are busy. Average folk can hope to have in-depth knowledge in one area, maybe two. For many it is sports, clothes, TV shows, hobbies of myriad sorts.

Even those who devote their lives to what we may consider good causes -- learning all there is to know about, oh, poverty, or ocean health -- do we hold them responsible for not knowing all there is to know about peak oil? Do we hold Prof. Goose responsible for not knowing the basic facts on, say, the tropical lapse rate quandary?

No. Most people rely, for most of their information, most of the time, on other people. They let other people do the thinking for them. It could not be otherwise.

Kernel knowledge

The Daily Show has done several funny bits on the energy bill. This one, on ethanol, is particularly funny.

Fedex doesn’t want you reusing their boxes

What do you do if you need furniture but are living on a limited income? If you're one Jose Avila, you direct your web browser to Fedex.com and order a bunch of boxes. Cuz, apparently, Fedex boxes can be used to make quite sturdy furniture -- from couches to beds to chairs to desks. To help spread the word that "it's OK to be ghetto," Jose setup the website FedexFurniture.com to share pictures and provide details for construction materials.

Enter Fedex and its lawyers with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act in tow.

Head on over to Wired to get the full scoop and to read the exchange between the Fedex legal team and the lawyers from the Stanford Law School Center for Internet and Society, who are representing Jose. After reading, let us know which is the crime: Jose's ingenuity or Fedex's attempt to crush it.

While I'm disappointed that Jose decided to use new Fedex boxes (I'm sure he could have been just as innovative finding used ones) I think his creativity is just another example of how we can reuse products that are often discarded.

And I'm totally disappointed in Fedex. Their antics will only encourage the Freecycle media relations people.