Jon’’s NewsCloud Journal

We would all like to be able to just sit down with diverse collections of citizens from all walks of life and work together to solve the problems we face.  My last post , however, discussed research showing that diverse contexts are unlikely to generate robust, free, and equal democratic dialogue.  
I also asserted that it is really difficult t…

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Liars. Cheaters. Scumbags. The Washington State Republican Party.
That series of four-page mailings many of you have been getting from the Washington State Republican Party, attacking Gov. Chris Gregoire and urging you to “vote for Dino Rossi”…?  Not only are the mailings deliberately misleading and factual incorrect, but according to a …

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Jon Stewart says his job is just throwing spitballs. But in satirizing a world that defies satire, “The Daily Show” delivers both news and morality.

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The closing keynote speaker of the Netroots Nation convention in Austin last month was environmental and social justice activist Van Jones. Following his Sunday morning speech TPMtv caught up with Mr. Jones and asked him about the perception of the environmental movement in the black community and how to alter that perception for the better in cre…

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…and, apparently, an idiot, too.
Bradley Marshall is an attorney, sports agent and adjunct law professor. He is also a pussy. A vain, effete, caterwauling pussy.
Of course, that’s just my opinion. My entirely non-libelous, constitutionally protected, personal opinion. But I think you’ll agree with me that it is pretty damn well supporte…

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I know I’ve made this point in various ways in several posts over the last day or so. But watching John McCain speak about the Georgian crisis in the video below should deeply worry anyone interested in a sane US foreign policy — or the safety of their children. One arch joke from the earlier part of this decade was that the one good thing abou…

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The scenic Columbia River and its wildlife attract visitors while a $2-billion-a-year cleanup of the area continues.

A platoon of double-crested cormorants took flight from the eastern shore of the Columbia River, skimming the sun-sparkled surface as two sle…

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Very cool!

By Glenn Fleishman

The unsightly plastic warts on our walls are sucking down terawatts of power globally each year. It’s time to put a stop to that needless energy drain by replacing dumb bricks with smart hubs — putting a computerized stake through the hearts of our home electrical vampires.

Devices that are plugged in b…

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Interesting. Ethan is (as usual) quite astute.

A media group in continuous operation since 1846 may not be the company you should look to for advice on the future of media. Or maybe they should: the Associated Press is both doing well in a digital age (when they’re not making boneheaded moves like pretending that fair use doesn’t exist…

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When you flush in Santa Ana, the waste makes its way to the sewage-treatment plant nearby in Fountain Valley, then sluices not to the ocean but to a plant that superfilters the liquid until it is cleaner than rainwater. The "new" water is then pumped 13 miles north and discharged into a small lake, where it percolates into the earth. Local utilities pump water from this aquifer and deliver it to the sinks and showers of 2.3 million customers. It is now drinking water. If you like the idea, you call it indirect potable reuse. If the idea revolts you, you call it toilet to tap.

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