Columns
“I’m a little child. You know the emperor’s new clothes? I can see the naked emperor, just because I’m a little child-minded person. I’m not smart. I mean, good scientists are like that. They have the minds of children, to see through all this façade.” Clair Paterson [Reilly] By Tony Noerpel Applied Mathematician Roger Penrose,…
“continuing on our current path will lead to catastrophic changes to the Earth system that give us life.” Peter Kalmus “We climate scientists have … concluded, unequivocally, that global warming is caused by humans burning fossil fuels, although we continue to understate the urgency and seriousness of the threat… we have nonetheless delivered our message. …
Between the COVID-19 pandemic, widespread social protest, various natural disasters, and several hotly contested elections, the year 2020 was one pretty much impossible to even begin to predict. Such a volatile and uncertain environment may make setting and sticking to an investment plan seem like an exercise in futility. Yet the best investment plans are…
By Michael Oberschneider, Psy.D. On a societal and global level, COVID-19 has made this year a difficult one in so many ways. Worldwide, close to 1.7 million people have died, and close to 80,000,000 people have become sick with the virus. Statistics on COVID-19 are also imperfect given testing limitations and the lack of consideration…
By Tim Jon Yeah – it was those balconies that got me; no, I’m not simpering about losing my heart on Bourbon Street: I’m just going back, about 20 years or more, to the first time I walked into the courtyard area at Market Station in Downtown Leesburg. A group of ‘theatre people’ took that…
By Samuel Moore-Sobel Since the onset of the pandemic, I’ve been able to dedicate more time to reading. One of my favorite books of 2020 was The Man Who Ran Washington, a biography of James A. Baker, by Peter Baker (no relation) and Susan Glasser. “Any chronicle of the modern presidency would find [James] Baker at the heart of…
“Polarization and objectivity don’t mix well; the search for truth becomes submerged by the implicit and demanding question: Are you with us or ag’in us?” Garret Hardin [Hardin] Let’s assume my premise is correct that people would accept facts if they knew what the facts were. A problem is that humans have collectively accumulated too…
The holiday season is upon us. For many, this is welcome news, because it means 2021 has almost arrived. For some, 2020 can’t end fast enough. For me, it’s a bit more complicated. The year 2020 has held mountaintop moments. First and foremost, I married the love of my life, Megan. Also, my book, Can You…
In a recent paper published in the journal Science, researchers Michael A. Clark, Nina G. G. Domingo, Kimberly Colgan, Sumil K. Thakrar, David Tilman, John Lynch, Inês L. Azevedo, and Jason D. Hill [Clark] show that greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) from agriculture alone are enough to warm the planet 2 K. In their study, the…
I have reached a conclusion: I definitely prefer the world as seen from within the Park’s boundaries to that of the ‘real’ outside. Perhaps one day, I shall just stay here. Having – literally – driven past the borders of Fireman’s Field Park in Purcellville hundreds of times (the local landmark lies between the Town’s…