John Robb's Weblog

California's Most Valuable Crop?

Weed. Guerrilla entrepreneurs to the rescue. Seizures are up ten-fold since 2002, much more due to increased volume than extra enforcement. That's one way to pay the mortgage (as the hilarious TV show, "Weeds" portrays).

A new issue of Project Whitehorse is up

A labor of love on the future of conflict (in this issue there is a focus on 4GW). Excellent.

Congrats to Jim Fallows and Tom Barnett

For excellence in political writing.

The Proteus Management Group: Another Government Boondoggle?

What happens when the government attempts to foresee the future? Nothing much from what I can see. If anything, only confusion. Too bad, another opportunity wasted.

Asymmetric Chinese Response?

It will be interesting to see if China rolls out vigilante anger (in the form of hacking/denial of service attacks ala my scenario in Wired) against US organizations/systems to protest the Dalai Lama's Congressional prize.

A Smart Way to Fund Wars

The best way to test ongoing public support for war is to share the sacrifice. That's why David Obey's proposal to tie Iraq funding to a temporary tax is perfect (and should be a requirement for all future conflicts).

$100 Oil in 2008

CIBC's chief economist. The important thing is that this won't be a price spike, but just the cost of maintaining the current growth patterns.

Over the past one hundred years, we have been able to plow through obstacles and limits to growth by throwing cheap energy at them (which makes even inefficient increases in social/economic complexity, viable). What happens when energy isn't cheap anymore, but rather moderately expensive? Do those past increases in complexity come back to haunt us? Yes.

When Rational Debate Ends

Spiegel. Seymour Hersh: We have this wonderful capacity in America to Hitlerize people. We had Hitler, and since Hitler we've had about 20 of them.