Random Thoughts – Page 10

The World, STEM and History,

It could be this is just an old liberal-arts grad yelling at the sky, but here goes…

Tuition at Waldorf School of the Peninsula in Mountain View California is $38,000. Its student body comprises many of the offspring of Silicon Valley tech executives. The school’s curriculum emphasizes literature, mathematics and science; also visual and performing arts. Students learn cursive writing using pen and paper. Teachers illustrate lessons by hand on chalkboards. There are no computers in the classrooms. Those who have made fortunes convincing school districts on the importance of technology in the classroom — and designing software intended to be addictive — want their own children to grow up without it.

Amazon, the New Domino’s?

In the mid 1960s, Tom Monaghan did some informal research among customers of his three-location pizza restaurant. He concluded that enough people wanted their order delivered and wouldn’t much care whether the pizza was any good, he changed the emphasis of his operation. Domino’s Pizza promised delivery within thirty minutes of taking the order or the pizza was free. He also began franchising and in less than a decade had two-hundred locations.

I’m b-a-a-a-ck!

Did you miss me? I have been away from my screen for a couple weeks refreshing my brain and doing some high-tech housecleaning… or more accurately, having some high-tech housecleaning done for me. Look for regular posts about my favorite — or sometimes not-so-favorite — subjects. You will be surprised and amazed.

Our Recycling Delusion

You likely have seen the news that China is no longer accepting material the U.S. sends for recycling. If you’re like me, your reaction was, What? We’re burning fossil fuels to ship our waste to the Far East? China’s reasons that most of what we sent was adulterated with garbage and could not be recycled.

If you’re thinking, okay, we’ll just recycle it at home, you’d be right, partly. There has been some investment in paper and plastic production from used materials. The news is mostly not good, though.

Another Thing To Worry About

It’s the air we breathe… inside our homes!

Since passage of the Clean Air Act in 1963 and creation of the Environmental Protection Agency in 1970, emissions of carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide and other harmful gases have fallen by half; particulate matter by eighty percent. An official “very unhealthy” warning for outside air is no longer common. That’s great, except, on average, we spend ninety percent of our time indoors.

Plastic: It’s Everywhere – Literally

Maybe a plastic-debris raft the size of Texas — actually two Texases — floating around the ocean amuses you; then you’ll get a real chuckle from the latest evidence of micro plastics being found everywhere! Everywhere includes both outside and inside our bodies.