latest posts
Highway to ?
March 5th, 2007
There was an article the other day in the paper with the headline “Phoenix Plans 24-Lane Highwayâ€. The article described the plan to widen a two mile stretch of Interstate 10 in Phoenix to 24 lanes. In each direction there would be six general purpose lanes, two high-occupancy lanes and then four lanes for local traffic. The article went on to mention several other giant highway proposals around the country such as an expansion to18 lanes in Houston and 23 lanes in Atlanta.
Water
March 2nd, 2007
A few years ago I started the process of buying a second home in a warm part of the United States. Living in Chicago, I wanted to find a place that, through the years would be where I would spend an increasing amount of time during the winter months. The first step in this process was looking at the various real estate web sites that displayed listings in the Southwest and in Florida, where the weather usually stays above freezing.
The first thing I experienced of course was sticker shock. In the few years since I had last looked at second …
Post Tipping Point
February 27th, 2007
Regular readers know that I believe that America and the world passed a tipping point last year regarding Global Warming. I have written about it here and here. Every week I continue to see evidence that verifies this viewpoint. Two weeks ago I shared with you my conversation with an executive at GM who not only agreed, but was working to create cars that the post-tipping point public wants to drive. In the past week I have seen even more evidence that we as a society have moved beyond …
New and Threatening Becomes Acceptable and Mainstream
February 20th, 2007
Recently I have been thinking about the cultural process whereby something that initially is perceived as dangerous to society ultimately becomes a part of the cultural mainstream. New is often perceived as threatening. Its newness is not understood, so if it can’t be understood and fit into the status quo then it must be bad.
This thinking was triggered several weeks ago when reading an editorial in The Economist about the need for an age-rating for video games similar to the age ratings of the motion picture industry. The thrust of the article was that something new is not necessarily bad …
