What happened in Ferguson, Missouri? And is this important to the nation? Continue reading
Author Archives: Don Neeper
Blog 60. Water flows uphill to money
Sometimes the inquiring technical mind cannot pass an opportunity to analyze what’s going on in the surrounding society. With me, that compulsion for analysis recently arose when the Forest Service announced it planned to approve a new pipeline to provide water for snowmaking on the local ski hill, some 2600 feet (more or less) above the town. As they say in the dry southwest, whiskey’s for drinking, water’s for fighting. Continue reading
Blog 59. Medicare, Medicaid, Medigap, and Affordable Whatever
The new national health insurance, officially the named the Affordable Care Act, is commonly called “Obamacare” because that’s a way to reduce a complex issue to one word. Continue reading
Blog 58. Hierarchy in Regulation
Society is a set of regulations—written and unwritten—that specify how a person, a social entity, or business should act. Continue reading
Blog 57. Energiewende – We should try it
Energiewende is the appellation for Germany’s transition toward a sustainable energy supply. George Maue, first secretary for energy and climate at the German Embassy in Washington, D.C., described the transition in his editorial published in the Nov-Dec 2013 issue of Solar Today magazine. Continue reading
Blog 56. Ravens and the rate of change
Most of these blogs have been concerned with the progress (or regress) of society, where most of us notice that our communications, demands, and obligations seem to be increasing. As noted by Gleick, society and daily living are changing, and the rate of change is increasing, too. That is, the rate of change of the rate of change is increasing. Continue reading
The Raven
I have for years thought the raven to be a particularly admirable creature, but I could find no way to express my thought until one day I discovered that I wanted to be a raven.
It is not that I have any idealistic notion that existence would somehow be more pure if I were to shed my clothes and grow feathers, Continue reading
Blog 55. Democracy and bankruptcy
Do all democracies drive themselves into bankruptcy?
In recent years we’ve seen cities descend into bankruptcy. Continue reading