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Here’s a nice quick hitter on electric trash trucks in Paris, the City of Love.  They’re quiet so you can run your collection routes at night thereby reducing traffic congestion considerably.  What’s not to love?

The Iranian nuclear power plant built by Russia at Bushehr is now operating. Atomstroyexport says that a self-sustained fission reaction began on Sunday. “This is one of the final stages in the physical launch of the reactor,” said Vladislav Bochkov, a spokesman for the Russian company. The plant is at “the minimum controlled power level.” […]

Juan Cole writes: Those who are unnecessarily worrying that Obama’s raid was lawless or set a precedent can rest easy; the only precedent is not military, but rather for back-room deals among governments who then put on public Kabuki plays. His statement was responding to the Guardian article from earlier this week, which reported that, […]

In my last post, I was discouraged by the lack of incentives for innovation in the public health system.  I bemoaned in particular the payment systems that reward bad care in equal measure to good care, a surefire recipe (to my mind) for a stagnant system. Lo and behold, the Obama administration is leading the […]

When one thinks of the biggest killers of children across the globe poverty and disease are what most often come to mind.   Only a few inches of water can be fatal to a child, leaving deadly hazards at many turns, such as a tub of water, a washing bin, a rice field, fountain or […]

Last week the U.S. ‘took out’ Al Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden. As an American, I cannot help but have a visceral reaction of delight. Such a major blow will surely expedite the end of ‘the war on terror’. Whatever your opinion is of that endeavor, we can all be relieved by its conclusion. If […]

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and US Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner play host this week to the third round of a newly formed bi-lateral talks between the US and China. This is the first time the so-called US-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue (SE&D) is being held in the US. The purpose of the talks, Geithner said in his opening comments on Monday, is to look for opportunities to build closer economic ties between the World’s two leading economic powers.

As mentioned yesterday, thought I’d do a follow up on the enhanced interrogation technique blog I wrote yesterday.  I asked the following question during the May 5th press call sponsored by the National Security Network and the Center for American Progress:      …if I’m understanding and hearing correctly, there was historical precedence as well as […]

The Big Lie – or tired old axiom if you want to be polite – is that renewables can’t get the job done.  If you need to believe that, then you might as well believe that ignorance is strength.  As I noted here, and many times at this blog, renewables are blowing the doors down […]

I have written on the subject of fuel banks before, the idea being to prevent the spread of Enrichment and Reprocessing (ENR) facilities which are capable of producing weapons-grade fuel by providing reactor material produced at a multilateral facility through supply assurances.  As I also noted, the IAEA Board of Governors approved a fuel bank […]

Echoing recent warnings by the FAO about a budding global food crisis, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton counseled representatives at a meeting in Rome on Friday about the dangers of rising prices and enduring shortages of food. Now, thankfully, the situation we face today is not yet as serious [as the 2007-2008 global […]

In the aftermath of the take down of Osama Bin Laden, there has been much debate and speculation on the nature of the intelligence used to finally track him down.  Front and center has been the role played using controversial interrogation techniques.  On 5 May I participated in a press call sponsored by the National […]