Growth Has an Expiration Date Bio Tom Murphy Tom Murphy is an associate professor of physics at the University of California, San Diego. He currently leads a project to test General Relativity by bouncing laser pulses off of the reflectors left on the Moon by the Apollo astronauts, achieving one-millimeter range precision. Murphy's keen interest in energy topics began with his teaching a course on energy and the environment for non-science majors at UCSD. He has explored the quantitatively convincing case that our pursuit of an ever-bigger scale of life faces gigantic challenges and carries significant risks. Click on any word within the transcript to jump to that point in the program. next previous cancel To download this program become a Front Row member. ZOOM IN: Learn more with related books and additional materials. For related Britannica content, please search on Britannica's Web site, at www.britannica.com.
IS 6.8 BILLON PEOPLE SUSTAINABLE? NASA Composite showing electrical Choke-Chain on Planet Earth. (click for full image) My son called me today to discuss an article he is writing on the subject of sustainability. After some discussion of the problems of fisheries, forest harvesting, and fresh water distribution, we came to the conclusion that sustainability might be best defined as: “Exploiting a system at a rate that is equal to or less than the time required for that system to replenish and heal itself”. I think this idea is closely related to Deming’s concept of systems optimization in which a system must be regarded as whole. We then turned our attention to global warning, wondering if this phenomenon could also be explained in terms of sustainability. We concluded that the same principles are at work, only in the case of global warming, the system that is out of balance is the Earth as a whole. Or will the system collapse and shift to another state altogether?
Pareto principle The Pareto Principle asserts that only a "vital few" peapods produce the majority of peas. The Pareto principle (also known as the 80/20 rule, the law of the vital few, or the principle of factor sparsity)[1][2] states that, for many events, roughly 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes.[3] Management consultant Joseph M. Juran suggested the principle and named it after Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto, who noted the 80/20 connection while at the University of Lausanne in 1896, as published in his first work, Cours d'économie politique. It is an axiom of business management that "80% of sales come from 20% of clients".[4] Richard Koch authored the book, The 80/20 Principle, which illustrated some practical applications of the Pareto principle in business management and life.[5] The Pareto principle is only tangentially related to Pareto efficiency. In economics[edit] The original observation was in connection with population and wealth. In software[edit] In sports[edit]
A Plan to Power 100 Percent of the Planet with Renewables In December leaders from around the world will meet in Copenhagen to try to agree on cutting back greenhouse gas emissions for decades to come. The most effective step to implement that goal would be a massive shift away from fossil fuels to clean, renewable energy sources. If leaders can have confidence that such a transformation is possible, they might commit to an historic agreement. A year ago former vice president Al Gore threw down a gauntlet: to repower America with 100 percent carbon-free electricity within 10 years. Select an option below: Customer Sign In *You must have purchased this issue or have a qualifying subscription to access this content Are Market GM Plants an Unrecognized Platform for Bioterrorism and Biocrime? Gini coefficient Gini coefficient of national income distribution around the world. This is based on 1989 to 2009 data, estimated by the CIA. Some are pre-tax and transfer, others post-tax income. The Gini coefficient (also known as the Gini index or Gini ratio) (/dʒini/) is a measure of statistical dispersion intended to represent the income distribution of a nation's residents. The Gini coefficient measures the inequality among values of a frequency distribution (for example levels of income). There are some issues in interpreting a Gini coefficient. Definition[edit] Graphical representation of the Gini coefficient The graph shows that the Gini coefficient is equal to the area marked A divided by the sum of the areas marked A and B. that is, Gini = A / (A + B). The Gini coefficient is usually defined mathematically based on the Lorenz curve, which plots the proportion of the total income of the population (y axis) that is cumulatively earned by the bottom x% of the population (see diagram). where and
I have always thought of Christmas as the most unkind holiday known to man. As a genetic Jew, meaning that I am of the tribe but do not subscribe to the tribe’s dogma, Christmas has always represented the imposition of unrepentant ritualized bigotry and selfishness, undergirded by superstitious Christian dogma designed to subjugate what is best in the human spirit. At the root of Christianity’s horrid story is the idea that the human experience is one of perpetual conflict between the forces of good and evil. There are reasons why Christian dogma has become so all pervasive. Two-hundred-thousand years ago Homo sapiens, “man the wise”, left the protection of the trees to wander the world. The first 195,000 years (Click Graphic to Play) What we now know with some confidence is that it was not until 5,000 or 10,000 years ago, not even a drop in the bucket of evolutionary time, that man-the-wise domesticated the plants and animals and gave up his most natural and benign wandering ways.
Power law An example power-law graph, being used to demonstrate ranking of popularity. To the right is the long tail, and to the left are the few that dominate (also known as the 80–20 rule). In statistics, a power law is a functional relationship between two quantities, where a relative change in one quantity results in a proportional relative change in the other quantity, independent of the initial size of those quantities: one quantity varies as a power of another. For instance, considering the area of a square in terms of the length of its side, if the length is doubled, the area is multiplied by a factor of four.[1] Empirical examples of power laws[edit] Properties of power laws[edit] Scale invariance[edit] One attribute of power laws is their scale invariance. , scaling the argument by a constant factor causes only a proportionate scaling of the function itself. That is, scaling by a constant simply multiplies the original power-law relation by the constant . and A power-law only if Universality[edit]
How to power America with renewables on the cheap: Build a shit ton of wind and solar capacity America could be powered almost entirely with wind turbines and solar systems by 2030 at a cost comparable to what we’re spending for dirty power today, a new study finds. The necessary approach would surprise most people, and it would generate enough economic activity to make any capitalist drool: Build, build, build … and then build some more. From Midwest Energy News: The analysis … challenges the common notion that wind and solar power need to be paired with fossil fuel or nuclear generators, so utilities can meet electricity demand when it’s not windy or sunny.The paper instead proposes building out a “seemingly excessive” amount of wind and solar generation capacity — two to three times the grid’s actual peak load. By spreading that generation across a wide enough geographic area, Rust Belt utilities could get virtually all of their electricity from renewables in 2030, at a cost comparable to today’s prices, it says. So keep those wind and solar farms coming, America.
Kalmička zajednica u Beogradu Beogradski Kalmici. Iz foto-arhiva Politike. Opis života društvene grupe koja se raspala pre više desetleća i zatim se skoro bez tragova zagubila povezan je, bez sumnje, sa posebno vrućim problemima metodološke i metodičke prirode. Za etnološku struku beogradska kolonija Kalmika, zapadnomongolskog naroda sa područjeg donjeg toka Volge, zanimljiva je kao primer male zajednice u kosmopolitskom velegradu, kao doprinos etnološkom izgledu Beograda i, konačno, kao fragment istorije Kalmika u emigraciji. Većina Kalmika došla je u Jugoslaviju decembra 1920. sa grupom od 22.000 vojnika, u pratnji članova porodice. Tako su u novoj sredini nastavljali tradiciju uzgoja konja, kojim su se bavili na donskim stepama. Neki Kalmici stigli su u Jugoslaviju 1922. godine, kad su iz Vladivostoka morale da se povuku i poslednje protivboljševičke jedinice. Glavnina ruskih iseljenika u Jugoslaviji živela je u Beogradu. Budistički hram u Malom Mokrom Lugu, Beograd - izgled oltara u različitim periodima. Fusnote: 1.
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