December 2, 2014 The ongoing United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (December 1 through 12, 2014) in Lima must not fail to slow, and eventually halt, the use of fossil fuels and nuclear energy to generate electricity. That would greatly reduce carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases in the … Continue reading
Category Archives: REFERENCE
UCLA Fees 1949-1950
Source: Registrar Archive, University of California at Los Angeles Inflation conversion factor 1950-2014 = 9.8520; 2014 dollars in parentheses. Incidental fee: $39 ($384.23) Covers certain expenses of students for library books, athletic and gymnasium facilities and equipment, lockers and washrooms, registration and graduation, consultation, medical advice, dispensary treatment as can … Continue reading
Secretary Hagel & The New Arms Race
Outgoing Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel’s Keynote Speech at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, Simi Valley, CA, November 15, 2014 Excerpt The Department of Defense is undergoing a defining time of transition. After 13 years of war fought by an all-volunteer force, we’re facing a reshaping of our enterprise by … Continue reading
The Caribbean
G-20 Infrastructure Commitment On November 16, 2014 leaders of G-20 nations in Brisbane, Australia presented a plan to boost global GDP by more than $2 trillion over five years by investing in infrastructure and increasing trade. Presumably the infrastructure they have in mind will include projects to reduce the use … Continue reading
Better Than Grid Parity
Electricity in Hawaii costs $0.38 per kilowatt hour, almost treble the national average of around $0.13, which incidentally does not factor in the damage to the environment caused by using fossil fuels to generate electricity. Solar power, which can cost $0.30 per KWH, is now actually cheaper than grid electricity. … Continue reading
Solar Power Economics
October 24, 2014 Here’s an example –albeit of limited scope- of how solar power could be used to reduce unemployment. An Arizona-based private company will build a 60-megawatt solar power plant on 600 acres of dry, vacant land near Mendota, California, a drought-stricken community with near 30% unemployment about 25 … Continue reading
The Conquest of Drought
Speaking at Brookings on the economics of climate change, Secretary of the Treasury Jacob Lew remarked that “the cost of inaction or delay is far greater than the cost of action.” The fact of the matter is that there is no national or international consensus among leaders on what, if … Continue reading
Make the Deserts Green!
October 14, 2014 Here’s more evidence, if any is needed, that the world needs to manufacture water in parched deserts far from any coastline to plant and irrigate trees so they can reduce the heat-trapping carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. A report published in the Proceedings of the National Academy … Continue reading
Debt, Taxes, Banks, And Paper
…It is a wise rule and should be fundamental in a government disposed to cherish its credit, and at the same time to restrain the use of it within the limits of its faculties, “never to borrow a dollar without laying a tax in the same instant for paying the … Continue reading
Might Makes Right
It having been shown in the foregoing discourse, 1. That Adam had not, either by natural right of fatherhood, or by positive donation from God, any such authority over his children, or dominion over the world, as is pretended: 2. That if he had, his heirs, yet, had no right … Continue reading