Portfolio Life .net

I bought some books recently. Yeah, been quiet on the blog front as I noodled through some ideas. Project management, global warming, making a difference - small stuff like that.

Today I picked up:

Cool It: The Skeptical Environmentalist’s Guide to Global Warming

He states:

The argument in this book is simple.
1. Global warming is real and man-made.….
2. Statements about the strong, ominous, and immediate consequences of global warming are often wildly exaggerated, and this is unlikely to result in good policy.
3. We need simpler, smarter, and more efficient solutions for global warming rather than excessive if well-intentioned efforts. Large and very expensive CO2 cuts made now will have only a rather small and insignificant impact far into the future.
4. Many other issues are much more important than global warming. We need to get our perspective back. There are many more pressing problems in the world, such as hunger, poverty, and disease. By addressing them, we can help more people, at lower cost, with a much higher chance of success than by pursuing drastic climate policies at a cost of trillions of dollars.

That’s where I read to before buying the book.

And this weekend I opened a stock brokerage trading account. Again. Online.
The idea being to save for retirement. But then I began reading a book I’d run across!
And picking out stocks to track!

The Clean Tech Revolution: The Next Big Growth and Investment Opportunity
And the whole thing began to come together.

But it begins with a thought I ran across. Well… I read someone else’s thought and went aha!

Actually, what I read was on Steve Krug’s website - a sample chapter of his book.
While he’s talking about webdesign, its really about how we humans tend to work - tend to think.

Fact of life #1: We don’t read pages. We scan them.
Fact of life #2: We don’t make optimal choices. We satisfice.
Fact of life #3: We don’t figure out how things work. We muddle through.

Sounds a bit like how we “deal” with global warming doesn’t it?

As in, we satisfice, muddle through as we scan the scary headlines.
And accomplish next to nothing.
Well, maybe Bjorn Lomborg left breadcrumbs we can follow as we muddle through, satisficing.

James R. Stoup posts “One Day I Will Switch from Apple” at Apple Matters:

I really like Apple’s products. I love the iPod. It rocks. I have three. I love Macs. They rock too. I have two (working on a third). The iPhone is amazing, iTV shows great promise, and just about every piece of software they make is wonderful. And in spite of all that, one day I see myself switching to Linux.

I realize that is a bold statement, so let me clarify my position. When I say “one day,” what I really mean is “one day, after Steve Jobs leaves Apple.” Because as much as I don’t want to admit it (and if you think I’m in denial, just imagine Apple’s stockholders), Apple is going to become a radically different company once Jobs leaves….
In fact, I expect it will mirror the history of Disney after Walt Disney died. For those of you who don’t know, Steve Jobs is this generation’s version of Walt Disney. Disney was an amazing leader. He was a showman, an artist, a businessman, and someone who had an uncanny gift for knowing what people wanted even if they didn’t know themselves. Oh, and he had a knack for being ahead of his time. Sound like anyone we know?…

I sometimes write something that is close to being an essay and this doesn’t seem the blog for that.

But some might be interested in them so I’ll cross link when it seems appropriate.
Today there are two blog posts on Risk and Uncertainty.
There may be more later.

Risk and Uncertainty #1 which sets the tone and discusses nuclear power balanced against global warming. What are the measurable effects (risks) to mitigate? And the uncertainty to find measurement for?

Risk and Uncertainty #2 this one branches the conversation to healthcare, insurance and hospitals.

Virtual economies need economists
(And economists need virtual worlds for experimentation)
Peter Svensson, Associated Press, Sept. 12, 2007

NEW YORK - Just before U.S. financial
markets were roiled by a global credit squeeze this summer, an equally
dramatic financial crisis threatened Second Life, the much-hyped online
world.

On July 25, the company controlling Second Life announced that it would
no longer allow gambling. Economic activity was cut by nearly half as
gambling halls shut down.

That’s a recipe for disaster in any economy, with job losses and a
possible currency collapse, but the online world stayed on an even
keel.

That’s in part due to the fact that few people make a living there but
also to the firm grip on its currency market by Second Life’s
equivalent of Ben Bernanke, chairman of the Federal Reserve.

It’s just one example of how economists and virtual worlds are teaming
up, to mutual benefit. Outside Second Life, a game company just hired
its first full-time economist. Another economist, coming from the
academic side, believes that just as virtual economies need economists,
so economists need virtual economies - to experiment with….

Yup, economies need virtual savvy economists.

TierneyLab posts a challenge A Cool Look at Global Warming: Your Turn to Take On Bjorn Lomborg, a response to a previous post.

But first let me present a little more of his argument, and tell you why I like his new book, “Cool It: The Skeptical Environmentalist’s Guide to Global Warming.”