Random links
- Skeptical about renewable energy predictions? You should be.
- "we weren’t the only ones that were timid in our predictions of renewable electricity’s potential. Based on data collected by the Renewable Energy Policy Network for the 21st Century, many experts were way off on how wind and solar electricity would grow over the last decade." I wonder how much of this might be impeded by Europe's economic crisis (where they seem to be trimming back a bit on support for renewable energy) or China (where the government seems desperate to build to raise its GDP ... and build ... and build even if it means empty cities and the like)
- How the Elites Built America’s Economic Wall
- "the promise of a better life that once drew people of all backgrounds to rich places such as New York and California now applies only to an educated elite -- because rich places have made housing prohibitively expensive. ... there are two competing models of successful American cities. One encourages a growing population, fosters a middle-class, family-centered lifestyle, and liberally permits new housing. It used to be the norm nationally, and it still predominates in the South and Southwest. The other favors long-term residents, attracts highly productive, work-driven people, focuses on aesthetic amenities, and makes it difficult to build. ... The first model spurs income convergence, the second spurs economic segregation."
- Dog collar clergy 'risk attack'
- "National Churchwatch, which provides personal safety advice, says vicars are attacked more often than professions such as GPs and probation officers. ... In the past decade, five vicars have been murdered. And a 2001 academic study also found that 12% of clergy had suffered some form of violence. In a survey of 90 London clergy Mr Tolson carried out last year, nearly half said they had been attacked in the previous 12 months." (The state Church of England seems to have more or less given up on believing anything distinctively Christianity but still...)
- R&D is not Innovation
- A worthwhile read.