Walking the Dogs
Seen from the bike today – a woman in Corrales, New Mexico, taking her dogs for a walk.
Archive of entries posted by jfleck
Stuff I Wrote Elsewhere: Forecast Edition
On the current status of our snowpack: Much of New Mexico is just like the forecasters said we should expect it to be: dry. With La Niña’s cool Pacific waters pushing storms away from us this year, Albuquerque and most points to the south and east have been drier than average since Oct. 1. The …
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“Dank, cloudy and small”
By way of describing its home island’s lack of suitability as a place to grow biofuels, the Economist in its Jan. 19 issue describes Britain as “dank, cloudy and small.” Makes me want to fly over on one of Sir Richard’s biofuel jets to go on holiday.
Heath Ledger Survey
I was puzzled by the range of reactions I heard from those around me yesterday to the death of actor Heath Ledger. So I’m conducting a survey. When you heard the news that Heath Ledger died, was your reaction: Who’s Heath Ledger? Wasn’t he that guy in that movie about those guys? OMG! Other (please …
Wal-Green
I have no idea how to judge whether this is serious, as opposed to greenwashing, but I do know that Wal-Mart could probably do more than any three of the rest of us combined: “We see customers having to choose between filling up their gas tanks or buying medicine and food and clothes,” ran Mr. …
Prediction Markets
A smart friend recently commented thus: “Gambling is just a way to redistribute resources from the dumber to the smarter.” In that regard, it’s a good thing I’m only playing Intrade with play money. Intrade is the betting-prediction market that’s all the rage among the Wisdom of Crowds Crowd, and I’ve been using it over …
When Food is Fuel
Keith Bradsher wrote in yesterday’s New York Times about what happens when we start using food for fuel: In some poor countries, desperation is taking hold. Just in the last week, protests have erupted in Pakistan over wheat shortages, and in Indonesia over soybean shortages. Egypt has banned rice exports to keep food at home, …
Oil Prices and the Dollar
Rich Sweeney had a post last week that answered a question I’ve had: What does the runup in oil prices look if you’re not so US-centric as to view it in dollars? Obviously dollars is the currency I have to use to buy my barrels of oil, but I was curious how much of the …
Parental Advice
Words of wisdom I recently shared with my daughter: It’s important to never take blueberry swirl bread toast for granted.
Water in the Desert: Harry Reid Edition
Peter Waldman has a story in Portfolio exploring the role of the federal government in general and Harry Reid in particular in the growth of Las Vegas: In a city running out of water, massive housing projects rise in clouds of dust on the outer reaches of the Las Vegas Valley like stucco ramparts built …
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