Every year about this time I start revising my syllabus for the next year. Next year I will include a provision that keeps technology out of my classrooms. As a teacher I oppose the infiltration of screens into our classrooms, particularly liberal arts’ classrooms. I recognize the need for computers to do research and write […]
An endorsement for low-tech learning Read More »
In 2008, Ohio’s legislature banned high-cost loans, but the industry has since found ways to continue offering the same services. Despite the public voting against the industry’s efforts to roll back the law by a two-to-one margin, hundreds of payday loan stores still operate in the state, charging annual rates of up to 700 percent.
Whack-a-Mole: How Payday Lenders Bounce Back When States Crack Down Read More »
California leads the way to a fossil fuel-less world. Solar Energy Today marks a momentous day for the United States, as the Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System (ISEGS) is officially producing energy for the first time. Owned by NRG Energy, Google, and BrightSource Energy, the system is located on a barren plot of federal land
Stick This in Your Fossil Fuel Pipe and Smoke It! Read More »
As the industrial revolution has shown, each period of economic prosperity is invariably followed by a dramatic bust. Those who were late to the 1850s California Gold Rush, the 1990s dotcom boom, and the 2000s housing bubble all experienced the consequences of being too late to the party. The Texas and California oil booms of
10 Signs The Fracking Industry Faces Big Trouble Read More »
The internet was rocked last Friday by the news of the suicide of Aaron Swartz, co-founder of Reddit and passionate advocate of internet freedom. Swartz had been facing up to 13 felony counts, 50 years in prison, and millions of dollars in fines for allegedly downloading millions of academic articles from the digital archive JSTOR
Hacktivism: Civil Disobedience or Cyber Crime? Read More »
The Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP) – the controversial bailout of Wall Street in 2008 – has come to an end, the Treasury Department has announced. The remaining shares of the banks and General Motors owned by the government are to be sold off. However, the reality is that the biggest Wall Street banks are
“It is quite interesting, to see the sun wander round the heavens at so to speak the same altitude day and night. I think somehow we are the first to see this curious sight,” Roald Amundsen’s diary, upon arriving at the South Pole in 1911, Roland Huntford, The Last Place on Earth (Scott and Amundsen’s
Antarctica – The Big Kahuna Read More »
J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., the largest bank in the United States, has announced a loss of $2 billion in trades over the past six weeks, with the potential for an additional $1 billion in losses due to overly risky bets. Chief Executive Jamie Dimon has attributed the losses to “many errors, ‘sloppiness’ and ‘bad
For decades, Californians have been unaware of the prevalence of fracking within their state. Hydraulic fracturing, commonly known as fracking, is a process of injecting thousands of gallons of water, sand, and chemicals into the earth at extreme pressure and speed to extract natural gas and oil from underground shale deposits. This has caused a
Bill Gates has sparked controversy with his suggestion that the world’s population should be reduced through the use of vaccines. In a TEDx presentation two years ago, the Microsoft billionaire argued that investment in healthcare and reproductive health services could reduce the population by 10-15%. He suggested that instead of spending money on those who
Op-Ed: Bill Gates Favors The Death Panel and Vaccines To Decrease The World’s Population Read More »
