Friday Linkage 12/14/2018

If you needed another reason to be thankful that Democrats whooped Republicans’ asses in the midterm elections look no further than Iowa’s own Steve King.  During a recent hearing with Google CEO Sundar Pichai, King managed to claim the throne of “biggest asshat in Congress” by actually demanding the names of approximately 1,000 people who worked on the company’s search algorithms.  Yep, a sitting member of Congress just asked a private company for the names and social media profiles of 1,000 employees to check for bias.

Now, I ask Steve King or any of his cronies what law has been broken to make this demand even the least bit tenable?  I will hang up and wait for the answer.

On to the links…

The Best Technology for Fighting Climate Change Isn’t a Technology—It is not just about preserving the forests that remain.  We need to institute a broad effort to regenerate the forests that we have lost.

The EU Could Halve Emissions By 2030 By Acting In Just Three Key Sectors—Cutting carbon emissions is not rocket science.  It is actually a lot like supply chain planning.  You identify the big movers in your supply chain and act accordingly.  If something is responsible for 2% of your supply chain cost you will not spend as much time and effort on it as something that is responsible for 25% of your supply chain cost.

Trump Prepares to Unveil a Vast Reworking of Clean Water Protections—Thanks to the utter ass beating that Republicans took in the midterm election the worst impulses of the Trump regime will be checked.  The latest bad idea to come from the worst presidential administration in U.S. history is just further proof that getting 2020 right is critical.

Getting Interior to Respond to Your FOIA Requests Just Got a Lot Harder—Absolutely nothing says corruption like making it harder for the public to know what is happening within your department.  Ryan Zinke is a corrupt public official.

New House Science Committee Chair to Climate Scientists: We’ve Got Your Back Again—At least there will be one venue in Washington D.C. where science is actually trusted.

Is Nuclear Energy the Key to Saving the Planet?—I do not know what to do with nuclear energy.  Yes, it is carbon free electricity.  However, the legacy of uranium mining in the West is not pretty and the waste is a real problem.

U.S. Coal-Fired Plants Depend on Maintenance Projects as Market Toughens—The economics do not favor coal and the current political climate is making many of the projects toxic.  When Donald Trump is no longer in office who will coal barons go to hat in hand?

Twin Cities’ Metro Transit plans to shift bus fleet to all-electric—Combine electric buses with bus rapid transit and you have an electrified way to move a lot of people without having to spend the time and money to deploy light rail or other infrastructure heavy projects.  If less people are driving for various reasons why not utilize the roads that we have already built?

Good News: Bitcoin is Becoming Worthless—Bitcoin is probably going to be remembered like those Tamagotchi things that seemed to be everywhere for a hot minute and then got lost in junk drawers across America.

From Freecycling to Fairphones: 24 Ways to Lead an Anti-Capitalist Life in a Capitalist World—I do not know if it is anti-capitalist or just a little less consumer focused.  Either way these are not bad ideas to spend a little less time worried about shopping during the holiday season.

The Golden Age of Rich People Not Paying Their Taxes—The pendulum has swung so far in favor the rich that you have to wonder if Donald Trump is the supernova before the inevitable fading.

Friday Linkage 8/24/2012

This is it for about two weeks because I will be spending the time around the Labor Day holiday in Colorado visiting friends.  It should be a nice break spent sampling beers at several of the Front Range’s well-regarded craft brewers, some nice hiking, and maybe bagging a couple of fourteeners if I am lucky enough to get the time.  Who knows, maybe the Manitou Incline will make the schedule this trip.

On to the links…

White House Brews its Own Beer and the People Want the Recipe—The person who filed the Freedom of Information Act request is awesome!

Natural Gas, Renewables Dominate Electricity Additions in 2012—Expect this trend to continue as the downside of coal fired power becomes too much to overcome in the U.S.  In China it is another story entirely.

Older Boomers Help Shift Driving Trends into Reverse—There is going to come a time when I stop having to read articles on the impact of baby boomers.  Until then, I can at least hope there are more positive stories like this one.  Essentially, with such a large cohort of people entering the period of life where driving declines there is going to be a general trend downward in miles driven in the U.S.

U.S. Hits 30 Bike Shares in Just Four Years—Compound the decline in baby boomer driving and following generations’ inclination away from auto-centric lifestyles…you get those socialist sounding bike shares.  Sean Hannity is crying in his Ayn Rand pajamas right now thinking about people sharing…bikes!

Most New Yorkers Say Bike Lanes are a Good Idea—New Yorkers were already probably on Mitt Romney’s hit list because of their affinity for dense urban living and public transportation—where does one find space for a car elevator in SOHO—but their support of bike lanes will make him join a therapy session with fratty Paul Ryan.  Just don’t take either of them to the Park Slope Co-Op.

On Lanai, Community Faces Change—Lanai is such a strange place.  Just off the cost of Maui, it seems like it should be developed for tourism like so much of the area around Lahaina yet it is sparsely built out.  Now that Larry Ellison has bought the island there are concerns about his plans.  So far, he has said nothing.

Marine Defenders App Helps Fight Ocean Pollution—Technology can offer new ways to help heal and protect the planet.  We need to take advantage of every opportunity to do so.

The Art of Saving Reefs—Last week I had a link to some similar information on man-made sculpture reefs.  Here is a video showcasing some of the marine life that has come to inhabit these odd, but compelling creatons.

USDA Eyes Whether Tainted Beef Entered Food Supply—The story emerging out of Central Valley Meat Co. is disturbing.  The folks over at Compassion Over Killing obtained video imagery of sick animals being slaughtered and shoddy practices leading to quite brutal deaths.  At least In-and-Out did the right thing by severing ties with this company.  The only way to affect positive change in the system right now is to hit them in the pocketbook.

Celebrate the Farmer—Mark Bittman is right to suggest that we need to celebrate the people who make our food as much as we celebrate the people who cook our food.  The problem is that people are too disconnected from the production of basic foodstuffs.

How to Improve School Lunch without Spending More—If there is one place where everyone should be in agreement, it should be that we can provide better food to our children in school.  Sorry, but strawberry flavored milk, reconstituted chicken parts, and some faux mashed potatoes from a box do not count as food.

Ten Gardens Prettier than a Lawn—In the United States we are obsessed with covering our landscape with acres of green carpet.  What about alternatives?  With the drought afflicting so much of the country I would hope that more people consider replacing some, if not all, of the lawn on their property.  It is going to be one of my priorities come spring.

Front Yard Garden in Quebec Wins Right to Stay—The sweet front yard garden in Drummondville, Quebec that was slated to be ripped out has won a stay of execution.  This is such a better alternative than a blah patch of green grass.

88 Year Time Lapse of a Forest—Forests can seem so static, but this series of photos taken from the same spot in Idaho show how dynamic the landscape can be in just under a century.