Flip Side of the Coin

We have spent the last several weeks looking at some of the benefits of public transportation, according to its advocates. This week we shift gears and look at some of the challenges that public transportation faces when the topic is raised.  We look at the challenges around substantial initial costs, long construction times, and the risk of low utilization once it is built. 

We have looked at most of the well-recognized modes of public transportation, but what about some of the lesser utilized ones? This week we spend some time looking at lesser known modes of public transportation, and we look at how they are utilized around the world by different cities and communities.  We look at monorails, and their ability to offer a medium-level rail option without the footprin...

We continue our conversation around public transportation, this week focusing on heavy rail. Heavy rail is different from light rail mainly in scale and capacity. Heavy rail cars are larger, and heavy rail trains often include more cars than light rail, meaning they can carry many more passengers at a time.  Proponents of heavy rail often see it as a foundation of a larger public transit system, c...

We continue our conversation around public transit, this week focusing on light rail. Light rail often comes in the form of trolleys, tram cars, and street cars, and are generally defined as small, 2-3 car trains on tracks that use electricity for power.  We look at some of the benefits that advocates of light rail raise when discussing public transit. They argue that light rail can be more effici...

This week we are starting a conversation around transportation. We begin by looking at buses and discussing some of the arguments that proponents of buses raise when discussing their benefits.  We look at how buses offer flexibility in public transit at a fraction of the cost of building out a rail system. We also take a brief look at Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) systems and how they can mimic light ra...

This week we look at some of the arguments of supporters of alternative methods of landscaping, particularly xeriscaping. Xeriscaping was coined as a term in 1981 by combining "xero" (meaning "dry") with "Landscaping", and aims to create a lush welcoming yard with minimal use of irrigation.  We look at some examples of how xeriscaping can reduce water usage, and look...

We take a look at lawns. In the past several years a debate around lawns and their importance, as well as their environmental impact, has increased in the US. Today we take a look at the argument in favor of lawns and look at some of the reasons why they hold such an important space in our culture.  We look at the history of lawns, and how they relate to the American Dream. We also look at some sc...

We continue our conversation around the War on Drugs and its relationship with the United States' increase in its prison population through the last quarter of the 20th century.  This week we look at the argument that the it was policy decisions that drove the US to increase its number of inmates, rather than it being a direct result of more crime. We look at the correlation between arrest ra...

We take a deeper look at the US prison population and its dramatic increase during the last quarter of the 20th century, and we ask the question "How did this happen?" Many experts argue that the rise in US incarceration rates is closely correlated with the War on Drugs.  We take a brief look at the War on Drugs, and what led to it, as well as some data and statistics around drug use and...

We continue our conversation around the privatization of prisons. This week we take a look at the argument in favor of privatized prisons. The first modern private prisons emerged in the US in the 1980s, and the industry has grown rapidly since then.  Supporters of privatized prisons argue that they offer the opportunity for better innovation and flexibility than government facilities. We look at...

Today we begin a conversation around the topic of private prisons. Private prisons are facilities that are privately owned and/or contracted out by the US government for housing incarcerated people.  Critics of private prisons argue that when a prison is run for profit, that it can create incentives to increase incarcerations and extend sentences in the name of increasing revenue. They also argue...

We're doing another rant today. Today we're talking about the importance of taking a break and stepping away from social media and the constant noise and endless feeds they provide us. People spend hours everyday on social media, and it can suck us in and we can get stuck spiraling through an constant stream of videos, posts, and memes.  Today, we are encouraging you to take a break, and...

This week we look at the argument in favor of term limits for congressional reps and presidents. Those who support term limits often raise the argument that term limits can help prevent career politicians, or those who remain in office for a very long time.  The concern that many of these supporters raise is that career politicians can become more concerned with retaining their position than they...

Today we start a conversation around term limits and the arguments that those who oppose term limits raise in the discussion. Today, congressional representatives do not have term limits, but the president does. We look at the history of how that came to be, with the tradition that George Washington set where no president served more than two terms until FDR, who is the only president in history t...

One misconception that people tend to have about skeptics and critics of EVs and Hybrid vehicles is that they do not care about the environment. In fact, many critics of EV and hybrid technologies are very concerned about the environment and our impact on it. Their concerns around electric vehicles and hybrids focus on the concern that the promises of these new technologies are overstated, and tha...

We take a look at hybrid vehicles and some of the arguments that supporters of hybrids raise when they encourage their wider adoption. Hybrid vehicles use both battery power and gas power for propulsion, and can switch back and forth between using their electric motor and their internal combustion engine while in operation.  Supporters of hybrids argue that they essentially offer motorists the bes...

Today we start looking at different kinds of vehicles. We start by looking at electric vehicles. EVs have seen a recent resurgence in popularity, and today we look at some of the reasons that are driving their popularity.  We look at some of the data around energy efficiency and how analysts calculate the differences in energy usage between electric vehicles and gas powered ones. We also look at s...

We continue our conversation around projects that essentially "de-extinct" a species ad bring it back. This week we look at the argument that critics of these projects raise, specifically that re-introducing a modernized version of some of these extinct species may not have the intended effect on a habitat, and may cause more harm than good in an ecosystem.  We look at a few examples of...

Recently you may have heard stories in the news around newly birthed pups that are modern-day dire wolves, a species of canine that went extinct around 10,000 years ago. You also may have heard about efforts to bring back woolly mammoths who also went extinct several thousand years ago.  We explore the topic of de-extinction projects like these. We look at some of the reasons that supporters argue...

We continue our conversation on the Alien Enemies Act, this week looking at some of the arguments that critics of the legislation raise.  We start by looking at one of its earliest critics, Thomas Jefferson, who argued that the Alien Enemies Act bordered on tyranny and argued that the president should not have unilateral power to remove or arrest those who the president feels is a risk, without du...

Today we begin looking at the Alien Enemies Act, which was invoked earlier this year by Donald Trump. The Alien Enemies Act is a piece of legislation that gives the president of the United States the ability to detain, monitor, and remove citizens of a hostile nation that are living within the United States during times of war and national crisis.  We explore the history of this law and some of th...

We continue our conversation around art and whether or not you can separate art from the artist. This week we take the position that you can separate art from the artist and look at some of the logic behind the position.  We explore the concept that literary critic, Rowland Barthes argues in his essay "The Death of the Author" in which he argues that once a piece of art is created, the o...

Have you ever had a film or piece of music ruined for you because of something an actor or musician has done or said in real life? Today we dive into the question of whether or not you can separate the art from the artist, and whether or not you should.  We look at some arguments for those who argue that you cannot separate the art from the artist, and we look at some examples of real life art tha...

We continue our conversation around boycotts and the question as to whether or not they are effective as a means of protest. The word "boycott" comes from the name of Captain Charles Boycott, an English land agent in Ireland during the 1800s, who became so unpopular with his tenants that the entire community refused to do any sort of business with him. The movement was so effective that...

Today we are talking about boycotts! Boycotts are a form of activism where consumers refuse to do business with an organization in an effort to pressure that organization to change their practices or policy. Some argue that boycotts are an effect and simple means of creating financial pressure on an organization, while others argue that they are not as effective as their organizers may hope.  We l...