This will be the first of several columns on the state of transportation in the U.S. Regular readers of this column know that for years I have predicted the current high price of oil, the sales collapse of the truck and SUV markets and the need for electric cars. In addition it has been stated […]
The time between this column and the last one posted here is the longest time between columns in the more than two year life of this blog. The reason is very simple. My father-in-law died a week ago and I have been mourning the passing of not only a man I loved, but an American […]
The last 50 years of humanity’s mindless consumption of fossil fuels has helped accelerate global warming. The total lack of a cohesive energy policy and program in America has given us $4 a gallon gasoline with $5 and $6 a gallon a practical certainty. There are millions of new riders on our mass transit systems […]
We have now entered the Shift Age, the global stage of humanity’s evolutionary journey. What this means is that the U.S. must redefine itself within this new global age. During the second half of the 20th century, the U.S. was a super power, the super power that lead the Western bloc of nations in contrast […]
Regular readers of this column may have noticed that in the past two months I have gone to a once a week posting. That has in part been due to weeks of non-stop travel, speaking engagements and book signings. I now find myself being able to sit at my writing table for a whole week. […]
When I wrote my first column on the electric car early in 2007 it was triggered by the announcement that GM was going to bring the Chevrolet Volt to market in 2010. As stated then, this was a significant event in that this was going to be the first plug-in car produced in significant volume […]
Well, it finally has happened. The price of gasoline has increased enough to cause pain to Americans so that they are changing behavior. The approach of $4 a gallon gasoline has, in the last month produced two positive results. First, after gasoline consumption increased 1.4% in March over the same month last year, it declined […]
One of the technological innovations I have written about here and here in this column has been the reduction in size and cost of computer storage. It is one of the more significant developments in computing over the past two decades. It is part of the foundation that has allowed the explosion in mobile computing […]
Growing up as part of the baby boom generation, a distinct memory is the air raid siren tests. Every Tuesday, if I recall correctly, at 10a there was the test of the air raid siren blaring across the entire city of Chicago. This was to prepare us for the possibility of a nuclear attack from […]
Two years ago in this blog, I wrote a futuristic column from April 20, 2009. The title of the column was “Remember When Gas Was Cheap?†At that time I predicted that the price of oil in early 2008 would reach $125 and that in April 2009 it would be $137. In January of 2007 […]