March 2009
4 posts
Driving on Ice in Estonia
It’s one of those things you keep hearing about the whole time you’re in Estonia, but you never actually get to do. Well one of this weekends we decided to drive west to the small town of Haapsalu, and while we were there, we saw some cars out in the sea. We obviously had to try it as well. So we took to the sea with our car, trying to stay afloat. It was actually quite safe, but it...
Drill, baby, drill - Exxon Valdez 20 years on
March 24th, 1989. The Exxon Valdez, a US oil tanker, owned by the Exxon Corporation, hits a reef off the coast of Alaska and spills an estimated 40 million liters of crude oil. Wikipedia’s page on the Exxon Valdez oil spill is pretty complete, “Thousands of animals died immediately; the best estimates include 250,000 to as many as 500,000 seabirds, at least 1,000 sea otters,...
The best and the brightest
As usual, a very interesting article on the NY Times about the degradation of values in today’s society , and how making a fast buck on Wall Street was hailed as the most interesting job for anyone with a brain. “The best and the brightest meant the people who were supposed to be the smartest, not who made the most money,” she told me this week. “This application in the last few years of...
Ideas that change the world - Citizen Action
The power of ideas to change the world has always been stuck on my mind. But as I grew older those thoughts of catalyzing ideas that could spur people into action faded away with my increasing cynic view of the world. Well, recent events, such as the current economic crisis, have vindicated some of my thoughts on what was “wrong with the world today”. Others, such as the election and...