Search Results for: learning from experience

100 years ago last night, the passenger liner Titanic struck an iceberg on her maiden voyage and sank two hours later. She carried over 2200 people – some of the world’s richest, and maybe 1000 of the poorest, the latter … Continue reading →

(completing the thought of the previous LOTRW post) Humanity is far down the path to developing herd immunity with respect to covid-19 and derivatives. Time was, our paleo-forebears “invented” an artificial but similarly effective resilience with respect to weather, climate … Continue reading →

To be human these days is to have a lot to worry about. News media play into this mindset. Joel Achenbach’s recent post, appearing in yesterday’s print edition of The Washington Post Magazine, provides a particularly thoughtful and comprehensive example. … Continue reading →

Continuing the good-news theme of recent LOTRW posts, the flight safety story lit up yesterday’s internet. This report, from Fortune’s website, gives the flavor:  Airlines recorded zero accident deaths in commercial passenger jets last year, according to a Dutch consulting … Continue reading →

These past weeks, you’ve likely found yourself struggling to stay afloat in a storm surge of ten-year Hurricane Katrina remembrance. News/social media outlets have been awash with reflections on the 2005 storm itself, which killed 1000-2000 people (yes, the range … Continue reading →

The previous LOTRW post took a look at work of the District of Columbia Water and Sewer Authority to modernize DC’s wastewater treatment infrastructure.  Half a world away, a micro-business is addressing a waste-management/recycling challenge in Nigeria. Here’s an article … Continue reading →

Every so often, even nature provides a do-over. Turns out that the ice storm that shut down Atlanta (and virtually no one else) was merely providing a tune-up for cities up and down the entire east coast. The real impact … Continue reading →

… that we face locally, everywhere… and globally. In a nutshell, here’s the unending task of living on the real world. We must simultaneously, everywhere, at every moment, and for extended periods, master the threefold job of (1) sipping from … Continue reading →

It’s one year on from Sandy’s landfall and devastating impact. All along the New York and New Jersey coasts, residents and workers continue to deal with the aftermath. Some face years of struggle. Perhaps it’s fitting to mark the somber … Continue reading →

“Any landing you walk away from is a good one.” – pilots’ adage. In the aftermath of the November 6th elections, Republicans are asking themselves what went wrong. Democrats don’t seem to be going through such an evaluation…at least not … Continue reading →