Stuff I Wrote Elsewhere
On the cost of nuclear power.
Archive of entries posted by jfleck
Neutrinos are not a breakfast cereal
I still do write about science now and then: In an unused alcove at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, Stanford physicist Giorgio Gratta and his colleagues have built a high-tech lab to try to measure the weight of what scientists call “the little neutral one,” one of the most mysterious of the tiny subatomic particles …
Don’t Call It “Drought”
A reader familiar with my longstanding interest in how one defines “drought” sent along this interesting story from the Australian Broadcasting Corporation: Federal Government-selected experts want people to start using the word “dryness” to describe Australia’s worst drought in a century. The word “drought” makes farmers feel bad, says the Government’s hand-picked Drought Policy Review …
Enjoy Bottled Water
I don’t know about you, but my right to enjoy bottled water is up there with freedom from search and seizure for me!
On Answering the Public’s Questions
I was annoyed at the McCain campaign for not answering my energy policy questions. Turns out I am not alone.
Expert Advice
David Glenn had a fascinating piece in the Chronicle of Higher Education last week about the struggle by academic economists to be relevant in the current fiscal crisis: [N]ow that the dust is beginning to settle in Washington, many academic economists have the gnawing feeling that during moments of crisis, they don’t have much ability …
Totally Bogus Circular Linkage
I totally made Env-Econ today! So I quote Whitehead, he links to me, then I link back to him. Will the totally bogus circular linkage chain be broken? Your move, John….
I wonder what the poor people are doing tonight.*
Remember when the commodity price explosion was causing food riots, and people were starving? Yesterday’s Economist food price index was 1.9 percent below a year ago. * The title is one of the few literary references at my disposal.
Coal’s Welsh Comeback
An AP story a couple of days ago is a reminder of why I’m so pessimistic about the possibility of effective climate change mitigation. People want energy, and they want it cheap. The story opens with a young Welsh man, whose father and grandfather worked the mines: “I couldn’t believe it when I heard there …
Bridled titmouse
I swear I got a good look at it. But it’s really not supposed to be here. Is I’ve mentioned before, I’m not a terribly experienced birdwatcher. But lately I’ve spent a lot of time at it, making lists using eBird, keeping close track of my yard birds, and dragging the books and binoculars with …