For instance, the Chinese: China is the largest financier on the entire continent. Chinese corporations, financial institutions, and the government have invested billions of dollars in large new dams, for example. And why? Indeed, many African governments prefer China as an economic partner over Western countries for a number of reasons. First, China's own development …
Daniel "What a Liar" Inouye Gone
The last of the Watergate Committee in the Senate passes: Sen. Daniel K. Inouye of Hawaii, a highly decorated World War II combat veteran who used his status as one of the most powerful Democrats in Washington and the second-longest-serving senator in history to send billions of dollars to his home islands, died Monday at …
Charlie Crist: When Diversity Doesn't Quite Work Out
He officially becomes a Democrat: Former Florida Gov. Charlie Crist's decision to formally join the Democratic Party – making the announcement via Twitter after a fist bump from President Obama – suggests to his critics a savvy political chameleon prepping for a 2014 gubernatorial run against Republican Gov. Rick Scott. Few tears shed over this …
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Please Don't Stop Barack Obama From Skipping Town
Some people are trying though: A new petition gaining ground on the White House website calls on President Obama to cancel his estimated $4 million vacation and devote the money instead to helping victims of Hurricane Sandy. The petition, which was created just two days ago, had 872 signatures as of 8:45 am ET this morning and …
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When Oystermen Offend the Earth
When they're leasing public land, and that must be stopped: Kevin Lunny’s struggle to keep his family’s oyster farm running in Point Reyes National Seashore appears to be over, closing out an era of oysterman plying the park’s pristine waters and ushering in the nation’s newest ocean wilderness. U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar’s announcement Thursday …
How to Lower Carbon Emissions: Tank the Economy!
Nothing to it, really: It's a message no one wants to hear: To slow down global warming, we'll either have to put the brakes on economic growth or transform the way the world's economies work. That's the implication of an innovative University of Michigan study examining the evolution of atmospheric CO₂, the most likely cause …
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Playing the Cards We're Dealt
My regular readers are probably aware that, among my other activities, I'm pursing a PhD in Computational Engineering at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. It's been an experience for several reasons. Starting such a degree in my superannuated condition wasn't an easy thing to do for that reason alone. Being both on the faculty …
Rubio's Not a Scientist, but They're Not Either
He fields the usual trick question: Florida Sen. Marco Rubio declined to firmly answer a question of existential importance in an interview released Monday. An interviewer for GQ magazine asked the Republican, a Catholic and potential 2016 presidential candidate, how old planet Earth is. Rubio didn’t give a direct answer, but suggested children should be …
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A Patronage Driven Political System Should be Called for What It Is
And not whine about it when people point out the obvious: So he (Mitt Romney) casts about, looking for some other explanation, and he lands on one: “gifts” that, to sway voters, the Obama Administration handed out to the President’s key demographic groups—“especially the African-American community, the Hispanic community, and young people.” “With regards to …
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The Men Who Saved the Computer From the Hippie Radicals
For all the hoopla these days about being "scientific", the history of science still gets the short shrift. We are happier discussing the philosophical advances engendered by the Enlightenment and not the people on the STEM (science, technology, math and engineering) end who actually made those advances a reality. We're also happier lionising those who …
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Positive Infinity 