Random Articles

• Towards a Richer Environment  “…the way we can best improve our environment is to make everyone rich enough to afford it (something that is already happening)…” - Will Franklin In 1989, I watched, stunned, at James Burke’s PBS special “After the Warming”. That was my first exposure to environmentalist propaganda; oceans rising flooding Florida and Indonesia - hundreds of
• Computers and Cars - Both Need to Be More Efficient Rex pointed me to the NYTimes article on Google’s energy efficiency proposals. I’ve been reading so much Jonathan Schwartz (”Value of Being Green“)lately that I’m happy to see another big player talk about improving the energy efficiency of computers. The energy efficiency issue made sense to me when explained it this way: “But you know how
• Exchanging Petroleum’s Problems for Ethanol’s I’m all for a regional-specific energy solution. Petroleum makes sense in places - like Texas - where petroleum exists. Less so in Nebraska where it’s easier to grow crops than dig for oil. Despite being more renewable than petroleum, ethanol has it’s own problems. It’s a little cheaper per gallon than gasoline (bigger subsidies?), but
• When Do We Throw It All Away? First off, I’m all for minimizing landfills and maximixing the use of our resources. But, I’ve been thinking more and more about the economics of ‘recycling’ since listening to Mike Munger on EconTalk in July. Right at the start of the podcast, Munger asks, “I have something in my hand, I want you to guess, is it
• My Car Won’t Run E85, Maybe Yours? Yesterday, I noticed the signage at the gas station up the street was showing prices for unleaded gasoline and E85, the fuel made of 85% ethanol and just 15% petroleum. E85 can be made from sugar cane, corn, wheat, just about any starch. Here in the midwest the obvious choice is corn. As a quick aside,