Is space travel possible for Abrahamic religions?

on January 20, 2025 in Nature

I was thinking about how some religions suggest people to pray facing east, Jerusalem, or Mecca. Quoting Wikipedia, “Prayer in a certain direction is characteristic of many world religions, such as Judaism, Christianity, Islam and the Bahá’í Faith.” I couldn’t help pursue the question. What happens if you’re on Mars? How would you figure out the direction to one of these places from Mars? What if we achieved interstellar travel?[…] Keep reading →

This week’s selected media, January 19, 2025: Transformer: Transitioning as a World-Record Powerlifter and The Heat Will Kill You First

on January 19, 2025 in Tips

This week I finished: Transformer: Transitioning as a World-Record Powerlifter, directed by Michael Del Monte, starring Janae Marie Kroczaleski: Wow! A fascinating and illuminating documentary in two ways. First, it showed the struggle of someone with two competing inner drives. One is to develop huge muscles and compete in bodybuilding. The other is to be a woman, though born a man. This movie revealed the struggles of navigating society and[…] Keep reading →

Do you turn on the light when you wake up at night to go to the bathroom? Why it matters.

on January 18, 2025 in Art, Habits, Leadership, Nature

One of the more common line of questions people ask me when they learn I disconnected my apartment from the electric grid is what I do for light. Before I share what I share with them, if you’re curious, you can find out easily: don’t turn your lights on this evening. If you do the simple task of not dying, you’ll find an answer. I’m no do-it-yourselfer. If you just[…] Keep reading →

Darn: My building’s 5-month project denying roof access has extended to 13 months.

on January 17, 2025 in Blog

My building’s routine maintenance project that began keeping residents from roof access last March is now extended to this March, as my building manager informed residents earlier this month. The delays mean I have to keep walking ten or fifteen minutes each way to Washington Square Park to charge. Argh. The building manager wrote me in early December, “The plan is for the work to be completed in December.” So[…] Keep reading →

Asymptotically approaching a finite number isn’t approaching zero, so we can increase efficiency forever and still increase pollution forever too.

on January 16, 2025 in Nature

Increasing efficiency forever can’t reach zero waste for many physical processes, but I think people feel otherwise. Or fantasize. When you hear about airplanes being made more efficient, or electric vehicles, computers, or whatever, do you think that if we keep making them more efficient, they’ll eventually not pollute? In the graph below, where the green curve approaches the horizontal line, it will lower forever but never drop below a[…] Keep reading →

Hear me on the Power Hour from the Heritage Foundation

on January 15, 2025 in Audio, Freedom, Leadership, Nature

Jack Spencer has been a guest on my podcast three times. Now I’ve been on his, and I think you’ll agree it was a fun, engaging conversation. I can’t tell you how much I’ve learned from him. For one thing, when I started doing the Spodek Method with him on my podcast, I enjoyed his sharing about nature so much, I didn’t get past the first couple steps. I had[…] Keep reading →

We need the words of Thomas Jefferson and work of Robert Carter III. Instead we have the words of Carter and acts of Jefferson.

on January 14, 2025 in Freedom, Leadership

Thomas Jefferson wrote some of the most inspiring words on freedom and liberty, yet kept his slaves. To this day, people say as a result: He didn’t mean all men are created equal or he wouldn’t have done what he did. He did, so he must have meant all white men are created equal. It’s difficult to impossible to lead without credibility or integrity. Jefferson undermined both by violating the[…] Keep reading →

802: Lorraine Smith, part 2: The hidden, dirty secrets of corporate “sustainability” work

on January 13, 2025 in Podcast

I start by sharing how much value I get from participating in Lorraine’s weekly coaching group. Then she shares her path to coaching on sustainability. She worked in the heart of the corporate sustainability accounting and reporting. She saw it mostly did nothing and often exacerbated the situations it purported to solve. She has created a practice that exposes and helps fix these problems. I ended up coaching her back[…] Keep reading →

This week’s selected media, January 12, 2025: Nuclear Revolution, Powering America

on January 12, 2025 in Tips

This week I finished: Nuclear Revolution: Powering the Next Generation, by podcast guest Jack Spencer. I also watched his presentation on the book and panel at Heritage and followed up with the film he recommended in that presentation, Powering America, by the Heritage Foundation, where Jack works. Through our conversations on my podcast, especially doing the Spodek Method, and (coming soon, just recorded) on his, plus all the interactions that[…] Keep reading →

Sign up for my weekly newsletter