Author Archives: Norm Benson

The number of extreme poor has dropped (and that trend will continue)

This should be front-page news. Laurence Chandy and Geoffrey Gertz of the Brookings Institution calculate (if my math is correct) that the number of people in extreme poverty ($1.25/day or less) dropped 30% (from 1.3 billion to 0.9 billion) in the past six years. How many poor people are there in the world and howContinue reading “The number of extreme poor has dropped (and that trend will continue)”

Comment on NRDC’s help in “Cleaning Up BP’s Mess in the Gulf of Mexico”

Do you follow the Natural Resource Defense Council’s “Switchboard” feed on Twitter? A recent one caught my eye: David Pettit’s Blog “Cleaning Up BP’s Mess in the Gulf of Mexico” How will BP be forced to clean up the mess it caused in the Gulf of Mexico? There is a process created for oil spillsContinue reading “Comment on NRDC’s help in “Cleaning Up BP’s Mess in the Gulf of Mexico””

Weekend Postcard – Lake county, Clear Lake

This is the view of eastern end of Clear Lake looking east and north on April 1, 2011; a beautiful spring day. This was my view as I spent the day brewing a batch of Citrazilla India Pale Ale on my back porch. I will have a write-up of that mini-fiasco (complete with recipe) onContinue reading “Weekend Postcard – Lake county, Clear Lake”

It’s Earth Hour tonight. Remember to turn the clocks back to 1900

Yesterday’s post recommended celebrating electricity rather than finding it (or rather the fossil fuel which produced it) the villain. If using no electricity still sounds appealing then this video might give some perspective into such a life. If 1900 still sounds like a place you would consider living. Consider this: 1900 dentistry. Are you turningContinue reading “It’s Earth Hour tonight. Remember to turn the clocks back to 1900”

Earth Hour 2011: In the dark, again

“I am ashamed at the number of things around my house and shops that are done by animals—human beings, I mean—and ought to be done by a motor without any sense of fatigue or pain. Hereafter a motor must do all the chores.” – Thomas Edison. During the World Exposition of 1873 in Vienna, ZénobeContinue reading “Earth Hour 2011: In the dark, again”

Sustainable forest certified beer

The Italian micro-brewery Foglie d’Erba (Leaves of Grass) earned first prize in the category “Anglo-American origin hoppy beers” with their PEFC certified beer at the recent Sapore Beer Festival, held in Rimini, Italy in February. PEFC is the world’s largest forest certification system. “Certification is often only associated with wood-based products,” explained Dr. Antonio Brunori,Continue reading “Sustainable forest certified beer”

Are the data clear and incontrovertible?

University of California at Berkeley Professor of Physics Dr. Richard Muller asks if the climate data are clear and incontrovertible? Answer: no, because they were very much tinkered with. You can’t say that the climate operated one way before 1960 and another way after 1960. Data are data. What should Mann, et. al. have done?Continue reading “Are the data clear and incontrovertible?”