Quote for July - Raymond Williams

To be truly radical is to make hope possible, not despair convincing.
 
   -- Raymond Williams

TerraPass: Carbon Dioxide Offsets for Vehicles Address Global Climate Change

I am thrilled to be a member of TerraPass, a program in which I pay $40 (because of the type of car I drive, fees range from $30 to $80) per year and my money, pooled with that of other TerraPass members, buys carbon dioxide emissions offsets from industry that correspond to the amount of greenhouse gases that my car emits each year. This constructive action was conceived as part of a class at The Wharton School of Business in the University of Pennsylvania, and 9 of those students are working out of an office in California, investing the money that comes in from TerraPass buyers in projects that reduce emissions.



My car and your car each emit roughly 10,000 lbs of carbon dioxide each year.



But once you enroll in TerraPass...



TerraPass members finance projects that reduce industrial carbon dioxide emissions...



which helps our environment.

Dr. Sugata Mitra's "Hole in the Wall" brings the Internet to very poor Indian children

For the last 8 years, an interesting experiment in allowing slum-resident children in India to teach themselves how to use the Internet, and what that does to their aspirations, confidence and school behavior, has been conducted by NIIT and its chief of research, Dr. Sugata Mitra. For a fascinating 9 minute video by a reporter who visited in 2002, Rory O'Connor which aired on PBS' Frontline/WORLD, see India - Hole in the Wall.

Trends in Science & Technology in USA are not good

The latest National Bureau of Economic Research report written by Richard Freeman, shows that science and engineering degrees outside the US are increasing while those inside the US are decreasing. See this report by Reuters via CNET.

Simultaneously, the Fiscal Year 2006 Federal Budget continues to shift money away from basic science and only into applications for defense and homeland security. See this overview from the American Assocation for the Advancement of Science. When an administration begins an extensive overseas military operation and at the same time reduces income taxes for the wealthy, while starting with a budget deficit, the result can only be a severe budget crunch. But we may be paying for these errors for generations in the future economic development of the United States.