Quote for the Weekend of New Year's 2017, Friday 30 Dec 16 through Sunday 1 Jan 17 - Teddy Roosevelt on laying waste to Mother Earth

“To waste, to destroy, our natural resources, to skin and exhaust the land instead of using it so as to increase its usefulness, will result in undermining in the days of our children the very prosperity which we ought by right to hand down to them amplified and developed.”

 – Theodore Roosevelt

Interesting Weekend Reads for Friday through Sunday, Dec. 30, 2016 - Jan. 1, 2017 . . . Happy New Year Edition

Note: We will be adding linked articles and stories as this New Year's weekend progresses. Check back daily...

Video: Watch Tesla’s Autopilot use black magic to avoid a wreck  (must see clip)   (Red Orbit)

Hunting for the Origins of the Universe in Chile's desert (great video)    (Bloomberg)

U.S. evicts Russians for spying, imposes sanctions after election hacks      (Reuters)

Leaving the Grid: How Utilities Can Manage Grid Defection in the Age of Solar    (Renewable Energy World) 


The Venezuelan Cafe Con Leche Index      (Bloomberg) 

Quote of the Day for Thursday, 29 Dec 16 by Albert Einstein on the Universe & Human Stupidity

“Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe.” 


― Albert Einstein

Interesting Reads for Thursday, 29 Dec 16: Vera Rubin, Nativism, Greed & More

"Devise your own paths": The enduring wisdom of Vera Rubin, groundbreaking Astronomer and working mother     (Quartz) 

Remembering Vera Rubin: The Trailblazing Astrophysicist Who Confirmed the Existence of Dark Matter and Paved the Way for Modern Women in Science     (Brain Pickings) 


As Populists Won 2016 Ballots, World's Richest Made $237 Billion     (Bloomberg)


Greed Springs Eternal    (Paul Krugman NYT)


The Wealthy Would Never Steal - A Credo For Trump's Party     (Jonathan Chait New York Magazine)


Trump's Transistion Team Is Stacked With Privatization Enthusiasts     (The Nation)


America's Market Sentiment Jumps Most Since Dot-com Boom: Chart      (Bloomberg) 

A short history of American Nativism    (Dollars and Sense)

Quote of the Day for Wednesday 28 Dec 16 by President Jimmy Carter on Mindless Consumption

“In a nation that was proud of hard work, strong families, close-knit communities, and our faith in God, too many of us now tend to worship self-indulgence and consumption. Human identity is no longer defined by what one does, but by what one owns. But we’ve discovered that owning things and consuming things does not satisfy our longing for meaning. We’ve learned that piling up material goods cannot fill the emptiness of lives which have no confidence or purpose. ”          

– Jimmy Carter

Interesting Reads for Wednesday, 28 Dec 2016: Cheap Solar, Cheap Wind, Marijuana & More

(click on image to enlarge)

2016 was the year solar panels finally became cheaper than fossil fuels. Just wait for 2017.

(Quartz)       

(Related must read: Renewable Infrastructure Investment Handbook    

(World Economic Forum)

Stat Oil bails on tar sands, invests in Wind Power     (Clean Technica)   Related: Stat Oil wins out over 13 other companies for New York offshore lease of 79,350 acres for wind power farm     (CNBC)


50 Tips on how to slow the Electric Car Revolution in case, for some perverted reason, you don't want humans to drive cleaner, more enjoyable, more exciting and safer electric cars   (Clean Technica)

Review of the new Lucid Air $160,000 electric car     (Yahoo) 

7 Bad health and science ideas that should die with 2016     (Vox) 

With the highest opioid deaths in the USA, drug companies flooded West Virginia with more than 780,000,000 pain pills over 6 years (2007-2012)      (NPR)     
Related: Former Delegate (and Pharmacist) Don Perdue (D) from Wayne County: "Distributors have fed their greed on human frailties and to criminal effect. There is no excuse and there should be no forgiveness."       
(Natural Society)       

The ten largest marijuana companies  
(24/7 Wall St.)

A battle over "Made In America" products is Looming and Republicans are in the middle of it: Round 1 of  "Trump vs. Paul Ryan"
 (Naked Capitalism)