Our natural gas reserves contain more energy than Saudi Arabia’s oil. Renewable energy and clean-burning natural gas are the basis of a new strategy the world needs to create a cleaner and more secure future. And the global transformation to a clean-energy economy may be the greatest economic opportunity of the 21st century. According to [...]
Archive for August, 2009
New Priorities For Our Energy Future
Posted in Editorials and opinion, Energy and Environment on August 17, 2009 | Comments Off
A French Surprise
Posted in Economy and business, Editorials and opinion on August 17, 2009 | Comments Off
Politicians don’t ‘grow’ economies. We witnessed that rarest of things last week—a politician’s public humility. When France, along with Germany, reported an unexpected uptick in economic growth for the second quarter, French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde called the return to growth “very surprising.” Imagine that—a major global economy stops shrinking, without the benefit of trillion-dollar [...]
Google Searches for Property Rights
Posted in Computers, Literature on August 17, 2009 | Comments Off
Online access to once-lost information is an exciting prospect. The biggest book deal ever is about to come under attack. Google reached a $125 million legal settlement last year with book publishers and authors so that it could digitize some 18 million books. A federal judge will soon review its terms, with the Justice Department [...]
Engaging Iran on Human Rights
Posted in Conflicts and wars, Editorials and opinion on August 17, 2009 | Comments Off
Weakening the mullahs is the best defense against an Iranian bomb. With Mahmoud Ahmadinejad now inaugurated for another four-year term, President Barack Obama is surely tempted to go back to seeking negotiations with Iran about its nuclear program. But these negotiations will not yield results and will only strengthen Ahmadinejad’s hold on power. Instead, the [...]
We Don’t Spend Enough on Health Care
Posted in Editorials and opinion, Health on August 17, 2009 | Comments Off
It’s crazy to adopt a bean-counting mentality amid revolutionary, albeit expensive, advances in medicine. Americans are being urged to worry about the nation spending 17% of its gross domestic product each year on health care—a higher percentage than any other country. Addressing the American Medical Association in June, Barack Obama said, “Make no mistake: The [...]
Anti-American Amigos
Posted in Conflicts and wars, Editorials and opinion on August 17, 2009 | Comments Off
Why is the Obama administration trying to help Hugo Chavez? Hugo Chávez took a break last week from lobbying Washington on behalf of deposed Honduran President Manuel Zelaya to travel to Quito, Ecuador, for a meeting of South American heads of state. There he launched a virulent assault on the U.S. military, reiterated his commitment [...]
An Honorable Discharge
Posted in Editorials and opinion, Health on August 17, 2009 | Comments Off
Democrats give veterans a pass from ObamaCare. We’re still sorting through the health-care deal Henry Waxman struck with Blue Dog Democrats recently, but one 11th-hour revision stands out. Namely, veterans will now be “exempt from the requirements of the legislation.” That’s how Mr. Waxman’s staff put it in a memo to reporters earlier this month, [...]
While My Guitar Gently Beeps
Posted in Arts and Entertainment on August 16, 2009 | Comments Off
Alex Rigopulos, a founder and the C.E.O. of Harmonix Music Systems. Big eyes (reflected from a photo in his Boston office) were watching. GILES MARTIN WAS conjuring spirits, or perhaps summoning gods. The tools for this ritual included a pair of omnidirectional microphones, a digital mixing console and a hastily-procured set of teacups and saucers, [...]
Can Game Theory Predict When Iran Will Get the Bomb?
Posted in Mathematics on August 16, 2009 | Comments Off
Is Iran going to build a bomb? Many people wonder, but Bruce Bueno de Mesquita claims to have the answer. Bueno de Mesquita is one of the world’s most prominent applied game theorists. A professor at New York University and a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford, he is well known academically [...]
Today in History – August 16
Posted in This day in history, tagged August 16 on August 16, 2009 | Comments Off
Today is Sunday, Aug. 16, the 228th day of 2009. There are 137 days left in the year. Today’s Highlight in History On Aug. 16, 1977, Elvis Presley died at his Graceland estate in Memphis, Tenn., at age 42. On this date In 1777, American forces won the Revolutionary War Battle of Bennington. In 1812, [...]
Drug Promises Fix for Radiation Poisoning
Posted in Health on August 16, 2009 | Comments Off
Dirty bombs are one of the biggest threats to the world’s urban populations. Now an American molecular biologist has developed a drug that may protect against the effects of radioactivity. Military officials are thrilled, and the discoverers could make billions. On Friday afternoons, as the Sabbath approaches and the sun hangs low in the sky [...]
The Book of Harry
Posted in Other on August 16, 2009 | Comments Off
How the boy wizard won over religious critics — and the deeper meaning theologians now see in his tale The world of religion was not, at first, particularly enthusiastic about the arrival of the Potter boy. For several years, J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series topped the American Library Association’s lists of the most-challenged books (reasons [...]
Let us now praise … the Orange Line
Posted in Living on August 16, 2009 | Comments Off
These are hard times on America’s oldest subway system. In the parched T stations you can feel it: death-grip debt. Service cuts, job cuts. And along with an economic squeeze, as we’re all beginning to learn, comes that other squeeze, less measurable but no less certain – a contraction in enjoyment, a recession in spirits. [...]
Way in
Posted in The Word, tagged August 16 2009 on August 16, 2009 | Comments Off
How an informality has climbed into English “Is Wendy’s hamburger way better than fast food?” asks reader Don Moody of Pittsburgh. “Is GoToMeeting.com way better than meeting face-to-face?” And is this advertising use of way correct English? The way in the Wendy’s ad had already attracted the attention of linguists, who recently pondered, at the [...]
Uncommon knowledge
Posted in Uncommon knowledge, tagged August 16 2009 on August 16, 2009 | Comments Off
Great news for Cameron Diaz Because President Obama is a lawyer and his mother had a commonly male first name (Stanley), he might appreciate this study out of Clemson. The authors calculated the “masculinity” of every first name in South Carolina as the fraction of registered voters with that name who were male. Then, they [...]
Your Baby Is Smarter Than You Think
Posted in Living on August 16, 2009 | Comments Off
GENERATIONS of psychologists and philosophers have believed that babies and young children were basically defective adults — irrational, egocentric and unable to think logically. The philosopher John Locke saw a baby’s mind as a blank slate, and the psychologist William James thought they lived in a “blooming, buzzing confusion.” Even today, a cursory look at [...]
Poetry in Motion
Posted in Poetry, Strange but true on August 16, 2009 | Comments Off
IT seems that we’ve done just about everything to get the American auto industry out of the doldrums. We’ve forced bankruptcies. We’ve exchanged cash for clunkers. But have we tried poetry? The question is brought to mind by the story of Marianne Moore, the famous American writer, who served for a brief season as the [...]
Taking the President on Faith
Posted in Editorials and opinion, Religion on August 16, 2009 | Comments Off
Oh, for those halcyon days when our biggest worry was whether the federal “faith-based” office might encourage a homeless person to find Jesus. Remember that? Hardly anyone talks much about the faith-based initiative begun by President George W. Bush and expanded by President Obama. And there was hardly a murmur about Obama’s appointee to head [...]
Today’s papers – August 16, 2009
Posted in Today's Papers, tagged August 16 2009 on August 16, 2009 | Comments Off
GOP seeks its revival in the revolt against Obama’s healthcare plan The Los Angeles Times leads with a report on the burgeoning Republican resistance to healthcare reform – a campaign that’s energized the party’s base, but about which many party leaders remain deeply ambivalent. The so-called “August revolt”, powered by activists’ antics at Democratic town-hall [...]
Dated Definitions
Posted in On Language on August 16, 2009 | Comments Off
The Oxford English Dictionary is, in its current book form, almost 22,000 pages long. It represents more than a century of effort on the part of hundreds of learned scholars who have compiled an inventory of all the English words that have been in substantial use since 1150 A.D. It does a wonderful job of [...]
Today in History – August 15
Posted in This day in history, tagged August 15 on August 15, 2009 | Comments Off
Today is Saturday, Aug. 15, the 227th day of 2009. There are 138 days left in the year. Today’s Highlight in History On Aug. 15, 1945, Japanese Emperor Hirohito announced to his subjects in a prerecorded radio address that Japan had accepted terms of surrender for ending World War II. On this date In 1057, [...]
As important as Darwin
Posted in History, Physical sciences on August 15, 2009 | Comments Off
In praise of astronomy, the most revolutionary of sciences FOUR hundred years ago our understanding of the universe changed for ever. On August 25th 1609 an Italian mathematician called Galileo Galilei demonstrated his newly constructed telescope to the merchants of Venice. Shortly afterwards he turned it on the skies. He saw mountains casting shadows on [...]
Today’s papers – August 15, 2009
Posted in Today's Papers, tagged August 15 2009 on August 15, 2009 | Comments Off
Obama Pushes Insurance Reforms The Washington Post leads with President Obama’s push for insurance reform on his swing through Western states, where he found a much gentler reception than many elected representatives. President Obama’s own town hall in Montana went better than some, with protesters confined across the street and mostly softball questions from the [...]
A Laser Defense Hit
Posted in Conflicts and wars, Editorials and opinion on August 15, 2009 | Comments Off
The Airborne Laser scores a hit, even as its budget is being cut Never has Ronald Reagan’s dream of layered missile defenses—Star Wars, for short—been as politically out of favor as in the Age of Obama. Nor as close, at least technologically, to becoming realized. The latest encouraging news came Thursday courtesy of the Misssile [...]
Obama and the Practice of Medicine
Posted in Editorials and opinion, Health on August 15, 2009 | Comments Off
Why is the president convinced so many doctors and patients are making irrational decisions? On the defensive because of an increasingly skeptical public, President Barack Obama has recently spoken extemporaneously about his health plan. In doing so, he has revealed his lack of understanding about aspects of medical practice and the reasons for rising health-care [...]
Palin Wins
Posted in Editorials and opinion, Health on August 15, 2009 | Comments Off
If she’s dim and Obama is brilliant, how did he lose the argument to her? The first we heard about Sarah Palin’s “death panels” comment was in a conversation last Friday with an acquaintance who was appalled by it. Our interlocutor is not a Democratic partisan but a high-minded centrist who deplores extremist rhetoric whatever [...]
Kepler’s world
Posted in Physical sciences on August 15, 2009 | Comments Off
Celebrating the work of a neglected astronomer Kepler moved it elliptically MUCH has been made of the 400th anniversary this year of Galileo pointing a telescope at the moon and jotting down what he saw (even though this had previously been accomplished by an Englishman, Thomas Harriot, using a Dutch telescope). But 2009 is also [...]
Crews ‘overpower Somali pirates’
Posted in Law on August 14, 2009 | Comments Off
Somali piracy has become a major international issue About 40 Egyptian fishermen have escaped from their Somali pirate captors near the northern town of Las Qorey, reports from the region say. A wounded pirate, found on a beach with machete wounds, said the crew attacked him and his colleagues with tools and then seized their [...]
English Nazi Slogans Are Legal, German Court Rules
Posted in Law, Strange but true on August 14, 2009 | Comments Off
Using Nazi symbols and slogans is a punishable crime in Germany. But now neo-Nazis may have more leeway after a federal German court ruled that slogans are not illegal if they are translated into another language. Is a Nazi slogan still a Nazi slogan if it is uttered in English instead of German? Not necessarily [...]
The next blue planet
Posted in Physical sciences, Space on August 14, 2009 | Comments Off
The race is on to discover a second Earth IN 1995, when Michel Mayor of the University of Geneva detected the first exoplanet (a planet that orbits a star other than the sun) he started a race that has gained pace ever since. Some 360 such planets have now been detected, but none is exactly [...]
