Danish Plan
What hath BP found?
On Jan. 10, 1901, roughnecks working on a 1,020-foot-deep oil well near Beaumont, Texas, were lowering the drill string back into their well when, without warning, the drilling mud began furiously bubbling back out of the hole. Alarmed, the crew ran for it. This ...
Predicting the future: The internet and two old poems
“It’s tough to make predictions, especially about the future.” —Yogi Berra
Back in 1984 or 1985, the late Jerry Pournelle, sci-fi writer, futurist, computer geek...
The dawn of the new era in Boulder politics
Wow! That was one awesome piece of politicking.
New Era Colorado, the millenial-oriented activist organization that all but single-handedly saved the muni, did a terrific...
Now playing in the star chamber: The impeachment of Donald Trump
According to a story in the Washington Post, House Democrats want the whistleblower, whose complaint is the pretext for their impeachment inquiry, to testify...
Gigafactory 3: Tesla’s miracle in Shanghai
OK, it’s been a lousy year — that much we can probably all agree on — so it would be cool if an old-fashioned,...
The toxic hell of fracking (children welcome)
The anti-fracking activists who demonstrated at an oil rig on Boulder County open space last Saturday obviously don’t think fracking is very dangerous. How else do you explain the fact that they brought their kids to the demonstration...
Why Romney lost — and how to win next time
Republicans have started a conversation on why they lost the election and on what they have to do to win the next one...
The flood of the century? Not exactly
This story is part of Our Road to Recovery, our coverage of the 2013 Boulder County floods...
The Danish Plan recalled
Participants in Boulder’s current conversation about growth are starting to allude to the Danish Plan, the growth control ordinance I wrote in 1976 that was adopted by a vote of the people in the November election that year, so I thought I’d provide some background ...
A modest proposal for ending the budget impasse
In his weekly radio address this past Saturday, President Obama called on Republicans and Democrats to make “political sacrifices” to break the budget impasse and prevent the collapse of civilization as we know it...
Who is a civilian?
During the Afghan and Iraq wars, stories would occasionally move on the wires announcing the deaths of “contractors.” The stories usually went to pains to point out that the deceased were “civilian contractors...
How to unsettle settled science (and settled scientists)
Talk about getting hoist with your own petard.
Australian climate scientists have succeeded in convincing the management of the country’s main research institution, The Commonwealth...












