Letters to the Editor
D. M. Kohoutek
Published Letters: 6
-
American elections have other problems
[Read the article: Let's abolish the Electoral College]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]If we are going to abolish the Electoral College, there are some disasters we need to think about. For instance, suppose we begin electing by direct popular vote, and there is an election where one candidate gets the vote a very slight margin. The other candidate(s) want a recount. We now have the same problem as Florida 2000 on a national scale. I don't think anyone wants that.
But really, there are other, equally severe flaws in the U.S.'s voting system. For instance, the plurality vote is well known to have flaws such as the "spoiler effect" where the addition of a third party can cause a candidate who would win to lose. Other systems have other flaws or are confusing. Of course, it doesn't matter how well the voting system works if elections are subject to vote fraud due to flawed voting machines.
We do need a new election system in America, updated for the 21st century, but there's more to update than just the electoral college. We need a comprehensive electoral reform on practically all aspects, not a piecemeal change to one part.
-
There is a solution for the etiquette problem.
[Read the article: Ask the pilot]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]On trains in Japan, talking on a cell phone is against the rules. Each train car has a sign telling you to put your cell in "manner mode" (turn the ringer off) and refrain from making or receiving calls. (If you think a packed plane full of people talking on phones would be bad, think of a Tokyo subway car at rush hour full of people talking on phones.) So what do people do instead? They text message. It is an alternative to talking that is completely inoffensive to those around you, and built into every cell phone made since cell phones got big.
If it turns out cell phone signals are harmless to a plane's operation, it might be a good path to allow text messaging and other silent functions of a cell phone and disallow talking. The older generations might balk, but trainloads of Japanese salarymen seem to have adapted to it well enough. Of course, the Japanese do both the following-rules and being-considerate-of-those-around-you thing much better than Americans...
What are the cell phone regulations on foreign airlines, for that matter?
-
Another north-south divide
[Read the article: How to solve America's water problems]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]When New York State was worried about deforestation lowering water levels in the Erie Canal, they created Adirondack Park, a forest preserve roughly the acreage of Vermont, to protect the canal's water supply.
And Georgia has done what, exactly, to protect Atlanta's watershed? I'm not getting the impression it's very much, outside of complaining when someone south of them wants some water too.
-
Just Starbucks?
[Read the article: The Starbucks economy]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Is this just Starbucks facing increasing competition from Dunkin' Donuts, etc.? What is the coffeehouse or coffee industry as a whole doing?
-
Mass transport is different from individual transport.
[Read the article: Ask Pablo]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]What are the carbon savings if i choose not to drive somewhere? Obviously, it's whatever would have been emitted had I drove there. The car does not move if i don't drive it, and its engine doesn't burn any fuel.
This is not the case for mass transportation. That plane, train, or bus is going to go where it's going no matter who's on it (assuming you're not specially chartering it). As the weight difference of one passenger, or even a large family, is negligible, it will emit the same amount of carbon whether I and my hypothetical family are on it or not.
Therefore, on an individual level, mass transportation has a carbon cost of zero: the costs are associated with the mass transportation network itself, not the people using it. The correct way to account for this carbon cost would be to either to hold the airlines accountable for it, or a fuel tax; however, given the cost of oil and the state of the airline industry, neither of these is very likely to get much political traction.
Yes, if a large number of people stopped flying, airlines would have to reduce their flights to compensate, and would thereby reduce emissions. That's not what the letter-writer asked. She asked whether she and her family, as individuals, should fly or drive. She asked a micro question and Pablo gave a macro answer. The math says she, on the micro level, can reduce her carbon the most by not driving. Unless she's planning to start a campaign to reduce emissions, the macro level is irrelevant.
-
The black Tom Cruise?
[Read the article: "Hancock"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]@NewFauve, you don't know how right you are. The school Will Smith and his wife founded in Los Angeles makes use of Scientology educational techniques. The LA Times reported on this here: http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-newvillage29-2008jun29,0,4115051.story
What Hancock demonstrates best is the uncanny ability of the Church of Scientology to destroy the career of any actor who touches it. It's kryptonite.