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 footprint of laying tracks on the ground. We look at aerial gondolas and how they are able to connec...

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, carrying millions of passengers every day between major hubs, with lighter public transit lin...

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 efficient, both in costs and in greenhouse gas emissions, than may other forms of transit. They al...

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 rail without the cost of laying track.

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 at some of the creative ways that designers use xeriscaping methods to enrich their property while also enriching their lo...

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 scientific studies that investigate how lawns and heavily vegetated areas can cool an environm...

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 rates and policy changes as well as incarceration rates to similar countries to the US as we explor...

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 crime rates during the 1970s and 80s.

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 some examples of this, such as tablets and online education and training opportunities for i...

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 that private prisons can reduce costs by employing less staff and cutting costs in training,...

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 step away and to go outside and touch some grass, for your mental and emotional well-being.

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 are with serving their constituents. The argument is that by enacting a set time limit for s...

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 to serve more than two terms. We look at some of the arguments that critics of term limits r...

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 that the actual impact on our carbon footprint and environmental impact is not lessened as much as o...

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 best of both worlds, by providing higher fuel efficiency than traditional gas-powered vehicles,...

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 some of the other benefits, like driver experience when choosing an EV vs a gas powered vehic...

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 invasive species and the havoc they cause in their new environment, as well as look at some alternativ...

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 in favor of these projects, especially when they involve species that have gone extinct due...

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 due process. We also look at the argument that the act is outdated, as it calls for use during...