“The awesomeness is in the evolution of a neglected, left-for-dead side yard of a rental building into a living, breathing space with butterflies, bees, fat earthworms, and toads, not to mention flowering plants.”
Friday, January 2, 2026
With Coal’s Decline, Pennsylvania Communities Watch the Rise of Natural Gas-fueled Plastics
A growing chorus agrees the expansion of the natural gas industry, which feeds plastics and petrochemical plants like Shell’s, is moving the U.S. in the wrong direction to prevent catastrophic impacts from climate change.
>/a>Making Sense of Bolivia’s Discontent
Unpacking the many political and policy contradictions in Bolivia over the past decade.
Health Care Dysfunction Makes It to the Presidential Debate
A damning compendium of what ails the US health care industry.
2:00PM Water Cooler 11/22/2019
Today’s Water Cooler: USMCA not yet agreed, Buttigieg, Bloomberg, Gabbard, Patrick, Sanders, Trump, Warren freezes up, John Bolton, Republican establishment on impeachment, Presidential debates, Epstein and Clinton, Krugman on The Blob, manufacturing, wildfires, mass shooters, income inequality
Lack of Right to Repair Limits Ability of US Military to Maintain its Own Equipment
Support for right to repair from an unlikely quarter: US military. Military hardware is sometimes shipped back to the states for repair.
PG&E Failed California. Here’s How the State Could Turn Things Around.
How PG&E came to dominate California’s electricity market, plus discussion of options to fix the fiery mess it has created.
US Medical Data Security Gets Worse 2 Months After Expose of Hundreds of Millions of Images, Related Patient Info Open on the Internet
Another medical data horrorshow.
On TV, Political Ads Are Regulated – But Online, Anything Goes
We’ve had over two years of pearl-clutching about political ads in the Internet era. What if anything should be done?
2:00PM Water Cooler 11/21/2019
Today’s Water Cooler: Apple, Huawei, and tariffs, Georgia polls, Buttigieg, Trump and Tim Cook, debate wrap-up, impeachment, Democrats and health care, jobless claims, leading indicators, manufacturing, housing, Wells Fargo, ticker symbols, Amazon deforestation, peat, the rattled rich
‘Destroyer of Newspapers’ Vulture Fund Buys Majority Stake at Tribune Publishing
Newspaper unions express fear that Alden Global Capital “is looking to bleed its next chain of newspapers dry.”
