I find the news these days to be very distressing; I’m surprised by how many things being enacted by our leaders seem to contradict the values I was raised with.  So I retreat to the world of what’s real, which to me is the world of Nature and the physical laws and relationships it embodies.  

Science and math are incredibly powerful tools.  Despite their unpopularity, their predictive abilities are unrivaled.  So I use them to assess the world around me, and recently I have been exploring the limits of our cultural assumption of unlimited growth.  Unfortunately, I find that we are reaching those limits, and I suspect that our current political conflicts may be related to them.

I don’t want this blog to become dominated by such heavy material, so I will simply reference the next essay, Defending Malthus, in my “limits” series, for those who find them interesting.  

Everyone else can hold tight.  I’m on my way to New Mexico, hoping to hike the Bisti Badlands again and take some photos.  That is what will keep my attention away from the daily dose of discouraging news.