~ Today’s Water Cooler ~
Sunday, February 8, 2026
Tips Tricks Dampen Delivery Worker Celebration of New $18-an-Hour Wage
Delivery platforms DoorDash and UberEats immediately retaliated against a NYC-madated wage increase by redoing their apps to undermine tips.
The Debate Over Restricting Immigration
The Republicans look serious about restricting immigration or at least rolling back recent Biden moves. But are there any sound approaches?
Plastic Is Here to Stay. Can It Be Made More Sustainably?
Redesigning plastic requires making trade-offs between cost, scalability, emissions, toxicity, and more. But how about using less?
‘A Sick Joke’: Six Ways of Looking at a COP
Making sense of this COP means looking at optics and interests, and sadly not outcomes.
2:00PM Water Cooler 12/6/2023
~ Today’s Water Cooler ~
Big Cons: How Consulting Firms Undermine Governments and Corporations
A new book by Mariana Mazzucato and Rosie Collington shows the damage big consulting firms do, particularly weakening client capabilities
Patents and Intellectual Property in Biomedical Science: A History in Two Tales
How the US licensing of NIH and other government funded drug and biomedical research became a grift for Big Pharma.
Why True Democratic Systems Are Incompatible with Class-Based Orders…..Like Capitalism
Continuing the debate on whether democracy is viable in a capitalist regime.
Russia’s Ideology Is Now National Liberation of the World From the US Empire, With an Assist From Patriarch Kirill
A detailed discussion of Russia’s effort to foster an ideological counterpoint to US hegemony, particularly via Putin speeches.
2:00PM Water Cooler 12/5/2023
~ Today’s Water Cooler ~
Is It Time to Tax Ultra-Processed Foods Because of the Massive Harm That They Do to Society?
Yes, Virginia, ultra-processed food is a health hazard. But what to do?
