Articles by David Roberts

regarding the dispensation of pork

1. Republicans control all three branches of government.
2. Thus, pork goes disproportionately to Republican congressional districts.
3. Republican congressional districts tend to be either rural or exurban.
4. Rural pork is composed primarily of agricultural subsidies and exurban pork is generally car-friendly.
5. Agricultural subsidies and car-friendly infrastructure development are environmentally destructive.

Whatever to do?

Update [2005-8-12 14:25:26 by Dave Roberts]: Oops. In reference to the above, I meant to point to this Nathan Newman post.

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.