Blog 109. Is clean coal clean?

The concept of “clean coal” has been newsworthy for a decade or more.  In 2009, Senators John Kerry (D-MS) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC) co-authored an op-ed in the New York Times, promoting renewable energy, nuclear energy, and “clean coal.”  Presidential candidate Trump touted “clean coal” during a debate.  Can coal, the dirtiest of fossil fuels, ever be made clean?  That’s seems as likely as senators of opposing parties learning to talk to each other again. Continue reading

Blog 103. Are we terrorizing ourselves?

There’s a social science of terrorism.  Science News magazine* devoted a special article to the research of anthropologist Scott Atran** of the University of Michigan.  Atran has been on the battlefields of ISIS, Continue reading

Blog 86. A message from Kathmandu

The story below is an email from an American anthropology professor who is doing aid work in Nepal.  It illustrates what happens when critical reasoning isn’t applied in social or governmental services.  For those of us who thought of Nepal as an impoverished but bucolic place populated by kind, reverent people, this report is a new view.  Might the developing disparity of wealth and power in the U.S. eventually bring a similar social situation here? Continue reading