Twisted light. Polarized in a new and different way? Or a way I just never heard of? Really? Or maybe it’s just a new application of circular polarization? Not sure. But anyway, 2.5 terabits of information a second would be nice to have for communicating in space, between probes and the homeworld. Between homeworlds in the cosmic civilization-scale jetlag.
Powder River Basin coal leasing prompts IG, GAO reviews
A piece from WaPo on Powder River Basin coal leasing practices. Finally some mainstream coverage of this $30 billion giveaway.
The Obama Administration’s Disconnect on Coal
A good quick look at how administration policies differ from implementation on the ground. Includes a short discussion of the lease by application vs. competitive leasing issue in the powder river basin, and the lawsuits that have been filed against BLM.
Notes from the Plan Boulder County Commissioner Election Forum
Two of the three Boulder County Commissioner’s seats are up for grab this year, and it’s all but given that whoever secures the Democratic Party’s nomination will end up winning the election. In District 1 (which includes the city of Boulder as far east as Foothills, see this map) we are losing former Boulder mayor Will Toor, who has served two terms — the maximum allowed. Vying for his place are Elise Jones and Garry Sanfaçon. On June 1st, PLAN Boulder County held a lively candidate forum, moderated by Alan Boles.
My notes are necessarily an incomplete record of the exchange. Unless otherwise indicated by quotation marks, the words below represent my paraphrasing of the candidates statements.
As an introduction, Boles first asked: Who are you, and why are you running?
Elise Jones responded that given the political situation at the state and national level, she felt local politics is where important changes are likely to happen. She cited her 8 years on the Boulder Planning Board, and more than 20 years working on environmental protection statewide as relevant experience, giving her an intimate understanding of land use issues. She stated that she is the only candidate with experience working to regulate the oil and gas industry, and that this has been one of her primary focuses over the last decade, “Ever since Dick Cheney declared war on the West.” She was supportive of ending GMO use on county open space, and highlighted climate change as the single largest looming issue facing us (and the world) today, especially given the occurrence this year of some of the warmest, driest spring months on record.
Garry Sanfaçon spoke about his son who just graduated from Nederland High School. He wants his son to be able to move back to Boulder County some day, and the importance of making sure that we have both jobs and affordable housing to make it possible for regular folks to keep living here. He highlighted his experience working for the county as the Fourmile Canyon Fire recovery director, as a member of the Boulder County Planning Commission, and as a visioning facilitator for various organizations. Sanfaçon stated that he’s the candidate taking the “strongest positions” on GMOs and fracking, and said that if elected he “would vote to ban them on day one.”
From the looks exchanged during the introduction, it became clear pretty quickly that fracking was going to be a hot issue, and Boles went directly to it asking: Fracking appears to be a state regulatory issue, and the state is currently dropping the ball. What can we really do about it, from a legal point of view?
Continue reading Notes from the Plan Boulder County Commissioner Election Forum
The collapse of the Soviet Union and the crisis of the Western welfare state
A great little thought from Nils Gilman on the consequences of the collapse of the Soviet Union for the Western welfare state. Broken and horrible though it was, the Soviet Union served western socialism by framing the discussion. Losing the “hard-left” peg for our Overton Window on social programs has led the entire discussion to slide quite a bit to the right.
Little Blue Pieces of Getting Things Done
A NYT article detailing the use of stimulants in high school to enhance academic performance. The problem of course is that they actually work. What are the long term consequences? Where’s the line between use and abuse? And who really thinks it stops after the SAT and AP tests? I wonder whether takes more than coffee to pull 80-100 hour weeks trying to make partner in the corporate litigation firms of lower Manhattan.
Uncle Ray’s Dystopia
The future we live in isn’t so far removed from the dystopian visions of Ray Bradbury or Aldous Huxley. And yet we hardly notice, day to day. That’s what makes them wonderful. Orwell’s 1984 is so obviously horrible to everyone in it and reading that it can be dismissed in ways that the consensual dystopia can’t…
It is thanks to Ray Bradbury that I understand this world I grew into for what it is: a dystopian future. And it is thanks to him that we know how to conduct ourselves in such a world: arm yourself with books. Assassinate your television. Go for walks, and talk with your neighbors. Cherish beauty; defend it with your life. Become a Martian.
Bikes and Bus Rapid Transit
http://www.flickr.com/photos/zaneselvans/7163262689/in/set-72157630011437301/
There’s still political wrangling to be done and funding to be found, but with a little luck we’ll see something resembling Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) coming to the US 36 corridor Real Soon Now. I think this is great, and will make very efficient use of the infrastructure, and limited tax dollars that we’ve got to spend from the FasTracks fund, but it does pose an issue for those of us who like to combine the regional express buses with bicycle-based last-mile connections. In the current RTD system, the regional buses have a huge amount of bicycle carrying capacity. There are two racks on the front, as with nearly all RTD buses, but the cargo bays underneath can easily accommodate another dozen bikes. Lots of the features that make BRT significantly better than normal buses also make them difficult to integrate with our current practice of taking our bikes along with us on the bus. See the Transmilenio system in Bogotá as an example:
Rethinking the Economics of Traffic Congestion
The Atlantic Cities takes a look at the Economics of Traffic Congestion. It turns out that congestion is positively correlated with per-capita GDP, and there’s little evidence to suggest that traffic congestion ends up inhibiting economic development significantly. In their words it’s nothing more than a metric of how convenient it is to drive an automobile. But many cities still insist on “Level of Service” as a metric of success in their transportation master planning process, under the assumption that congestion must necessarily be bad for the economy.
The Growing Popularity of Bus Rapid Transit
The Atlantic Cities has a piece on the growing popularity of bus rapid transit (BRT), both in the developing world and more recently cash-strapped transit authorities in the US. When it’s done right, it’s been called a “surface subway” or “rail on rubber”. Done half-assed, it’s just another bus line. Let’s hope we get it right with FasTracks on US 36.