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Ceaseless Change Dominates Our Dynamic Planet

Nothing about Earth history is static or unchanging. That’s particularly true of climate, and thereon hangs more than one interesting tale including recent news of a scientific advance in understanding how past climate has changed.

More Money, More Instability

Another Wall of Money on Its Way

Hot Diggity Dam

As the long season of darkness sweeps over the country, it’s a natural time to think about lighting – and how dependent we are on electricity during this dim time of year. You can heat your home with several different energy sources, including natural gas, heating oil or wood. But unless you’re living off-the-grid, the lights throughout your abode burn brightly because of electricity from the grid.

Throwing Good Money After Bad

“The surest way to destroy a nation is to debauch its currency.”; “The Capitalists will sell us the rope with which we will hang them.”
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Stepping Up To A Bright Idea

At first I wasn’t sure I was reading the CNN report correctly. The story hinged on special pavement that uses the impact of human feet to generate electricity.

The Euro Solution - Buy Now, Cry Later

In the last issue of The Dismal Optimist I wrote “One thing seems likely. The Europeans will come up with some kind of solution for Greece. No matter how stupid it is the stock markets will probably rally. Buy now, cry later.” It looks like that statement was correct. The stock markets anyway seem to be happy. For now.

The Great Recession Marches On

"When the weasel says ‘Happy New Year’ to the chicken, this is not good news.”

Doing More With Less On The Road

Between the debt-ceiling kerfuffle and Hurricane Irene, you may have missed two bits of summertime news that will be important for what we drive in the coming years.
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Stepping Back From Dam Power

Just over a century ago, when William Howard Taft was president and I was a young woman, an entrepreneur named Thomas Aldwell started building a dam in the Northwest woods of the Olympic peninsula in Washington.
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Breeding Better Wheat

I spent this past summer trudging through six-mile treks each weekend with two good friends. We walked along the edge of wheat fields outside of town. (My friends and I qualify as middle-aged ladies, so the walks counted as significant exercise. Sad but true.) One of the interesting things about the walks was simply observing the growth and ripening of the wheat fields by which we passed.
Featured Author
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Elizabeth Dilts

is currently pursuing a masters at Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. Dilts came to New York City from Shanghai, China, where she worked as an editor with the English-language City Weekend magazine. Prior to that, Dilts spent a year in Nanjing, China, with a bilingual, Mandarin-English magazine and a stint in Tianjin, China, with a business publication. Looking to use her Mandarin back in the United States, Dilts is covering Flushing, Queens, one of New York’s four Chinatowns. A native of Gary, Indiana., Dilts received her bachelor’s degree in journalism at Indiana University. While in China, she reported on Internet usage among young adults and the education issues faced by multi-ethnic children raised in China.