Green technology updates

GM chief admits failure to develop hybrid auto.

Detroit has long dragged its heels in energy saving, planet saving technology.

"Not making a hybrid car like the Prius was a "mistake," outspoken General Motors vice chairman Bob Lutz told a room of Chevy Volt "fan boys" at the New York Auto Show this week.

"We had the technology to come out with a hybrid at the same time as Toyota," Lutz said Tuesday. "In hindsight, it was a mistake. ... We made the mistake and we won't make it again." [ABC News]

Warren Buffett's portfolio includes trains

It's been clear since the energy crises of the 1970s that a wonderfully "appropriate" or "green" technology would be a decent railroad system like the ones that exist in Europe.

"Want to invest in a green industry that employs the latest technology, reduces U.S. oil consumption and is priced very attractively? Look no further than the railroads. Laggards for decades after the 19th-century boom ended, they're hot again.

"There was steady traffic growth until last year, and the trend looks good once the economy gets back up to speed," says Kenneth Kremar, an economist who follows the railroad industry for consulting firm Global Insight. Perhaps that's why railroad stocks have largely escaped the battering that other sectors have taken so far this year." [CNN Money]

Confronting Tyranny and Stupidity: What Works? --
My talk at the Democracy Teach-in

Below are links to the edited YouTube version of the talk I gave at the teach-in on democracy held at Rensselaer, October 24, 2007. This version contains the overhead slides I used to illustrate some ideas. Please click on each of the segments separately in order, otherwise YouTube may direct you to the earlier version, out of sequence and without the slides! Unfortunately, the parallels I was suggesting in the talk seem increasingly apparent.

Part 1:



Part 2:



Part 3:



(My thanks to Ethan Bach for the video editing.)