Despite its proximity to the oil-rich Arabian peninsula, Djibouti has no fossil fuel sources of its own.  Lack of resources in general has led to high unemployment, almost no industry, and a huge national debt. 

I miss my bicycle.  Years ago, I lived in Gainesville, Florida, and as a poor graduate student, a car was out of the question.  I had just moved from Baltimore, where I got by without a car because downtown was compact enough to walk around, and when venturing out, I could take water taxis to [...]

The La Canada Flintridge fire, along with the other fires consuming California, has been devastating.  Here are some pictures I took yesterday along CA-2. (more…)

When one thinks of Los Angeles, palm trees immediately come to mind.  Hardly a city block lacks a business with Palm in its name, and whether you’re in affluent Brentwood or the effluent neighborhoods near downtown, palms line the streets.  When visitors send postcards home, most likely they’re showing off palm trees.  We’ve got a [...]

Last Saturday morning, I was walking Cosmo before it got too hot for him . . . forgetting that the problem with walking him in the morning is like playing dodge ball—we are always avoiding the neighborhood nemesis, the leaf blower.  Discussions on pollution often focus on cars, factories, and LA, the ports:  but these [...]

Los Angeles is often the straw man when you read about California’s environmental problems.  The left screams bloody murder at the thought of offshore drilling.  Conservative farmers ask why “their” water is going to swimming pools in Southern California.  LA = smog, which is the view of many people, including one former college pal who [...]

I love to travel.  Well, not air travel–American carriers are atrocious, from their fight against security measures, horrific service, and filthy planes.  Southwest and Virgin America have become our luxury airlines, while the legacy carriers have become Greyhound with wings.  Sorry, that’s unfair to Greyhound.   But I’m not taking the Queen Mary to Asia [...]

Unless you’re completely apathetic, it’s painful to see what’s going on in Iran.  What was once one of the world’s most powerful and important powers is now a tragedy.  Years of plundering by the shahs’ regimes, and the rigidity and incompetence of the Islamic Republic has left this nation of over 70 million in economic [...]

I love The Economist.  I guess the UK has to have one tame level-headed publication considering its outrageous tabloids and magazines.  The latest little tidbit I ran into on their web site quoted an MIT professor’s study that basically says Not that a recession is good . . . it means promising economic initiatives such [...]

There’s been much discussion in the US and abroad about moving to a cap-and-trade system. How can I put this term in layman’s terms? Okay, I’m a dog owner, so let’s give you a real life scenario (if there’s such a thing in LA): (more…)

Every day I check the green tech news feeds and the biggest boldest headline today was titled, “US Lawmakers Formally Unveil Climate Change Bill.” I haven’t read it yet—I’ve been following the debate, and I’m fearful of what the bill will say. Overall, I tend to side with the Democrats on the environmental issues, but [...]