Tens of thousands of academic papers from Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society are being shared via BitTorrent thanks to the work of someone going by the name Greg Maxwell. All of the papers are out of copyright — they date from the time of Newton up through 1923. Nevertheless, they have until now been locked up behind a paywall. Hopefully others in possession of such troves will follow suit. Scientific publishing is long overdue for this kind of shakeup.
Wolfpack Hustle Rides Against Jet Blue
The Wolfpack Hustle is going to race against a Jet Blue flight across Los Angeles. Jet Blue is promoting itself with flights from Burbank to Long Beach for $4, during the so-called Carmageddon closing of the 405 freeway for renovations. The idea for a bike vs. jet race was hatched on Twitter. The total distance is about 40 miles. Will be interesting to see who wins!
WalMart selling cheap dutch-style bikes
WalMart is selling cheap dutch-style bikes. If you’re gonna sell cheap bikes, it makes a lot more sense to me for them to be simple and utilitarian (like the Flying Pigeon bikes of Tianjin), instead of double suspension 27 speed pieces of crap with lots of junk parts to break. If the bike is simple, for the same price point it can be more reliable. I hate WalMart, but I gotta say, I’m glad to see they’ve gotten on this particular bandwagon.
Boulder’s Energy Future Is Bright
Last night I went to a presentation by the Renewables Yes technical and financial modeling team. They’ve put up a bunch of information about their modeling efforts on the web site. I’ve organized nine short videos of a previous iteration of the presentation into a single 90 minute playlist here if you want to see it yourself. It’s definitely worth watching if you use electricity in Boulder! This post is my attempt to digest and rephrase their conclusions.
Recycled buckets for panniers
Buying in bulk, you can get 4 gallon rectangular recycled buckets for about $4 each. They make great durable, waterproof panniers with a little bit of extra hardware. Obviously, if you can find them locally for free… that works too!
Dust Bowl Scale Drought Unrelated to Climate Change?
A couple of weeks ago Bill McKibben wrote a sarcastic op-ed encouraging people to ignore any possible connection between climate change and the unusually intense tornado season, as well as other extreme weather events. I thought it was a little hyperbolic — of course people must be considering all this weather news in that light, right? But maybe he wasn’t being over the top. This NY Times article about Dust Bowl scale drought across the south and southwest doesn’t mention climate change once. The omission seemed conspicuous.
A Transnational School in NYC?
Chris Whittle is starting transnational school in NYC. A majority of the students will have at least one foreign born parent. All students will be taught half the time in English, and half the time in either Mandarin or Spanish. Actually, he’s starting the schools in 20 major cities around the world, all on the same curriculum and teaching model, hoping to hold on to the kids when their parents are shuttled all over the world for careers and ambition. It reminds me of the neo-Victorian phyle in Neal Stephenson’s The Diamond Age. What kind of new old boys (and girls) clubs will this kind of childhood education create? How will this kind of school compete with the high quality gray market educations now on offer?
Tar Sands Coming to America
The first US tar sands mine is set to open in northeastern Utah as soon as January 2013, with plans to expand aggressively thereafter. The leasing area straddles the Green River, between US-40 and US-50. Maps available here. It’s not hard to imagine what Edward Abbey would have to say about this…
A Space Aged Hiatus
Like a lot of scientifically inclined technophillic folks, the space shuttle’s last flight makes me feel a little melancholy. I believe there are very good reasons to send people off world. If we are both lucky and conscientious then in the fullness of time humanity — or whatever inherits our history — will mediate the migration of the terrestrial biosphere beyond this pale blue homeworld. In doing so, we will ensure, or at least increase the probability, of life’s persistence into deep cosmological time and space. This goal, or something akin to it, is what has motivated a lot of people (myself included) to work on space exploration over the last half century. It is an enduring motivation, but to the public at large and to policymakers, I think it comes off as esoteric, cultish, or at least eccentric.
Obama DOJ Leaves Medical Marijuana Patients Sick and Suffering
Obama DOJ Leaves Medical Marijuana Patients Sick and Suffering. So apparently the Obama DOJ is now going to pursue marijuana producers, even if they are in compliance with state regulations. This is a reversal of the administration’s previous position, and it’s absurd. People are going to use weed. Nobody takes the “reefer madness” BS seriously, and it’s been illegal for close to 100 years, and usage has only increased. You can either have it produced by tax paying, locally owned small businesses, or you can funnel a lot of that cash to drug cartels in Mexico and the domestic tax-exempt boutique black marketeers.