A Voice from the Upper Midwest, by William Ostrem
I’ve been talking to people in my hometown about making infrastructure changes that will encourage walking and biking, but will those changes actually lead to more physical activity? A University of Minnesota study suggests that they may not. Read the rest of this entry »
My interest in promoting bicycling and walking in my hometown of Northfield, Minnesota, has led me to think more about urban design. I recently checked out a few books on the subject from the library and wanted to share what I found. One of the more interesting books that I discovered was Douglas S. Kelbaugh’s Repairing the American Metropolis (Univ. of Washington Press, 2002). Kelbaugh is Dean and Professor of Architecture and Urban Planning at the University of Michigan. Read the rest of this entry »
This entry marks the first of a new category I’m calling “Inequality.” From time to time I’ll post entries related to that issue, largely out of my concern that inequality is rising in our society and around the world. Read the rest of this entry »
After many years of wrangling, on Sunday, May 21, the Minnesota state legislature approved a deal that provides public funding for construction of a baseball stadium in downtown Minneapolis. According to the St. Paul Pioneer Press, this ends “the longest stadium battle in the nation.” The new open-air stadium will seat 42,000 people and open in 2010.
I’ve followed this issue with some interest over the years, particularly when the Twins seemed to be in danger of moving or being eliminated by Major League Baseball. I reluctantly support the current deal because I believe the Twins may not have remained in Minnesota without a new stadium. My reluctance comes from the knowledge that many wealthy individuals - Twins owner Carl Pohlad and the Twins players - will benefit financially from a project that is financed with taxpayer dollars. I would much rather see the money for the stadium come from those folks than from the general public of Hennepin County. At least the Hennepin County sales tax supporting the stadium is small; it’s 0.15 percent.
David A. Wharton’s book, Life at the Limits: Organisms in Extreme Environments (Cambridge University Press, 2002), contains an interesting observation about temperatures on our planet. It shows that cold temperatures are the norm, not the exception, for the planet as a whole:
What are normal temperatures? The Earth is, on average, a cold place. More than two-thirds of the Earth’s surface is covered by ocean and the temperature of most of the ocean stays close to 2 °C. Including the ocean depths, the polar ice caps and the land, four-fifths of the planet is below 5 °C all the time. What we might think of as “normal” temperatures, say 10 °C to 30 °C, are really not normal at all but occur only in restricted parts of the world. Abundant life is associated with the warmer parts of the Earth (but not too warm!).
Happy Syttende Mai! That’s “17th of May” in Norwegian. This morning my wife and I attended the annual Syttende Mai Frokost (breakfast) at St. Olaf College. Syttende Mai is a Norwegian holiday celebrating the signing of that country’s constitution in 1814, which made it independent of Denmark. A forced union with Sweden, however, meant that Norway did not achieve full independence until 1905. Read the rest of this entry »
In the left-hand column I’ve added “Selected Entries,” which I’ll use as a guide to my favorite or most popular posts. Often these are longer, more ambitious entries.
Andrew Sullivan’s essay, “My Problem with Christianism: A believer spells out the difference between faith and a political agenda” (published in Time, May 15, p. 74), is already much discussed. I read it after a fellow member of a Bible study group at my Methodist church mentioned it. Read the rest of this entry »
On Friday, May 5, I attended part of of the St. Olaf College Annual Science Symposium. The symposium topic this year was “The Science of Sustainability.” I heard a lecture given by Dr. Stephen Polasky of the University of Minnesota: “Desperately Seeking Alternatives: Where Will Sustainable Energy Come From?”
I recently came across an interesting quote from Fareed Zakaria on contemporary conservatives. It comes from his review of George Packer’s book The Assassins’ Gate: America in Iraq:
Packer describes in microcosm something that has infected conservatism in recent years. Conservatives live in fear of being betrayed ideologically. They particularly distrust nonpartisan technocrats - experts - who they suspect will be seduced by the “liberal establishment.” The result, in government, journalism and think tanks alike, is a profusion of second-raters whose chief virtue is that they are undeniably “sound.”