We have written about unions dozens of times, and have consistently acknowleged the contributions unions have made. But over the past fifty years, the role of unions in the United States has changed in two important ways. First, most of the initial grievances that inspired workers to organize have been met; second, union power has [...]

Last week EcoWorld posted a lengthy explanation as to why we endorse John McCain for President.  We were so careful and so reasoned that some commenters actually thought we’d endorsed Obama.  We tried to acknowlege Obama’s strengths, and we criticized McCain’s weaknesses, and from it all emerged a tepid endorsement of McCain.  But not tepid whatsoever [...]

It is always interesting to read the ballot in California when there are a dozen or more citizen’s initiatives.  Californians, despite being social liberals, still tend to vote against any new taxes of any sort.  During the internet boom and the housing boom there was so much revenue flowing into the state and local governments it [...]

If you think about the mission of enterprise resource planning software, in some ways it’s surprising the modules for environmental health and safety compliance weren’t integrated sooner.  It is also interesting that at the same time as the major ERP vendors - Oracle, Microsoft, SAP, IBM, and others - were systematically integrating the major business [...]

RE Power’s “5M” offshore wind turbine is definitely the King of wind turbines - a single unit that generates 5.0 megawatts of electricity at full output.  With a rotor diameter of 126 meters (412 feet) and a hub height between 90 and 120 meters, RE Power’s 5M unit is the biggest wind turbine available in [...]

About four years ago the New Yorker Magazine endorsed a Presidential candidate for the first time in its then eighty year history. One should not doubt who they chose, John Kerry, someone who I also voted for. In their most recent issue, a bursting “theme issue” tome of erudite and addictive political commentary, the New [...]

If you want to imagine the Western Hemisphere’s equivalent to China’s Three Gorges Dam, look no further than the proposed Severn Barrage, which at peak output will deliver over 8 gigawatts of electricity, or about 50% of what the Three Gorges delivers. Even though the Three Gorges output decisively exceeds that of the Severn Barrage, [...]