Publications

Water Politics


The U.S. Water Supply, Visualized

Via Western Water Notes, a report on a new USGS assessment highlighting water availability: The U.S. Geological Survey released a water assessment on Thursday that found about 27 million people in the United States live in areas with high to severe levels of water scarcity. Although the agency has studied water quantity and quality in […]

read more...


Stable On The Colorado River: When “Good” Is Not Good Enough

Via JFleck at Inkstain, a report on the Colorado River: Stable isn’t good enough. Preliminary year-end Colorado River numbers are stark. Total basin-wide storage for the last two years has stabilized, oscillating between 30 and 27 maf (million acre-feet), where storage sits at the start of 2025[1]. That is lower than any sustained period since […]

read more...

Wildcats & Black Sheep


Saudis Plan $100 Billion AI Powerhouse to Rival UAE Tech Hub

Via Bloomberg, a report on Saudi Arabia’s plans to build an AI powerhouse: Entity would build on kingdom’s efforts to emerge as AI hub PIF, Google AI partnership may serve as model for project Saudi Arabia is planning a new artificial intelligence project with backing of as much as $100 billion as it seeks to […]

read more...


Russia Explores Plan to Merge Oil Giants Into Mega Producer

Via the Wall Street Journal a look at Russia’s plans to merge its oil giants into a mega producer which would be the world’s second-biggest crude producer, after Saudi Arabia’s Aramco, pumping almost three times the output of Exxon Mobil: Moscow is working on a plan to merge its biggest oil companies into a single […]

read more...


Why Has High Speed Rail Failed in Kazakhstan?

Kazakhstan once harbored grand plans for a high-speed rail network. The Diplomat examines why – while its neighbors have pushed ahead with such projects – HSR fallen out of favor in Astana: High-speed train travel can be a challenging prospect for any nation. To achieve speeds of 250 kilometers per hour, high-speed rail (HSR) requires […]

read more...

Watergy Nexus

Grid Unlocked


Residential Solar Is Becoming Residential Solar + Storage + VPP

Via Volts, an interesting interview examining how residential solar is becoming residential solar + storage + VPP: Hello everyone, this is Volts for November 13, 2024. “Residential solar is becoming residential solar + storage + VPP.” I’m your host, David Roberts. Last month, I was in Brooklyn for the third annual DERvos conference celebrating distributed […]

read more...


Why One Developer Won’t Quit Fighting To Connect America’s Grids

Via MIT Technology Review, an article on efforts to connect the U.S.’s grids: Michael Skelly hasn’t learned to take no for an answer. For much of the last 15 years, the Houston-based energy entrepreneur has worked to develop long-haul transmission lines to carry wind power across the Great Plains, Midwest, and Southwest, delivering clean electricity […]

read more...


What Happens When A Concrete Jungle Becomes A ‘Sponge City’

Via High Country News, a look at how engineering for flood resilience can address storms heightened by climate change. The living roof of the H2 Hotel in Healdsburg, California, both cools the building and mitigates rainwater runoff.John D. Ivanko/Alamy Stock Photo In early February, meteorologists warned Southern Californians that a supercharged storm was headed their way, […]

read more...

Seeds of A Revolution


China Is Scouring the Globe in Search of New Food Suppliers

Via Bloomberg, a look at China’s substantial efforts to future-proof itself for trade wars and the return of Donald Trump: China’s quest to feed itself has taken it as far as Kenya’s macadamia nut groves and Bolivia’s cattle ranches, as part of a push in recent years to diversify food sources away from traditional Western […]

read more...


Foreign Ownership of Canadian Farmland Remains A Concern For Producers

Via the Regina Leader-Post, a report on how foreign ownership of Saskatchewan farmland remains a concern for producers: Jeremy Welter is worried about the regulations that govern foreign purchasing and ownership of land. “The biggest concern is, it doesn’t seem like there’s enough teeth in the current legislation,” said Welter, vice-president of the Agricultural Producers […]

read more...


The Legitimization of Land Grabbing in Uzbekistan’s Cotton Sector 

Via The Diplomat, a look at how Uzbek farmers are paying a heavy price in the name of privatization: A new report on land grabbing and urban forced evictions, published by a network of independent Uzbek civil rights activists in collaboration with the University of Ulster and Uzbek Forum for Human Rights, exposes the vulnerability of farmers […]

read more...

SynWorlds


How AI Brought 11,000 College Football Players to Digital Life in Three Months

Via the Wall Street Journal, a report on Electronic Arts’ use of new tech to scan photos for its videogame after securing players’ likeness rights for the first time A character artist works on the new ‘EA Sports College Football 25.’ PHOTO: EA SPORTS It has been over a decade since Electronic Arts released a college football videogame. To […]

read more...


How Generative AI Could Reinvent What It Means To Play

Via MIT’s Technology Review, a report on how how AI-powered NPCs that don’t need a script could make games—and other worlds—deeply immersiv First, a confession. I only got into playing video games a little over a year ago (I know, I know). A Christmas gift of an Xbox Series S “for the kids” dragged me—pretty easily, […]

read more...


Gym Class VR Builds On Popularity With NBA Logos and Venues

Via Sports Business Journal, a look at how Gym Class VR is building on its popularity with the addition of NBA logos and venues: The mid-range jumper may be a lost art in the NBA game, but I sank one from just inside the free-throw line at the TD Garden, as the PA announcer called out the basket. […]

read more...

Roof Options


Rooftop Revolution: Where Homeowners Are Adopting Solar Panels

Via Fast Company, a report on where homeowners are adopting solar panels:   While more homeowners are adding solar panels to their homes in hopes of reducing their energy bills, adoption varies significantly across the country To understand which housing markets are doing the most solar panel installation, ResiClub collaborated with the data experts at BatchService, […]

read more...


Solar Math: Wait Until You Need A New Roof

Via Grist, a report on the math behind putting solar on your roof, which indicates that waiting until you need to re-roof is usually the best course of action: Not too long ago, Bryan and Summer Stubblefield wanted to outfit their California home with solar panels. They were considering an electric vehicle, and powering it with the sun […]

read more...

The Global Buffetts


Inside A Baby Berkshire Hathaway

Via Forbes, a look at how Markel’s Chief executive Thomas Gayner has quietly turned insurer Markel into a mini-conglomerate. Meet Richmond’s answer to the Oracle of Omaha:  Thomas Gayner gets a kick out of telling the story. It was 1983. He had just graduated from the University of Virginia with a plan to return home to Salem, […]

read more...


Constellation Software, Tech’s Berkshire Hathaway

Via The Economist, a look at a firm which many consider as technology’s Berkshire Hathaway: For older startups these are tough times. The weak recent stockmarket debuts of Arm, a British chipmaker, Instacart, a grocery-delivery group, and Klaviyo, a software firm, have dampened enthusiasm for initial public offerings. Venture capital (vc) has dried up. Data […]

read more...


The ‘Next Warren Buffett’ Curse Isn’t Always Fatal

Via Bloomberg, interesting commentary on how many – such as crypto billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried couldn’t survive the comparison – but others who actually invest somewhat like the Berkshire Hathaway chairman fare better: A couple of months ago, crypto billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried was peering out from the cover of Fortune magazine above the words “The Next Warren Buffett?” Now he’s at […]

read more...

Networked Nature


Digitizing Forests To Prevent Wildfires

Via The Economist, a look at initial steps to digitize our forests by using new technology to sniff out fires long before they spread out of control: The fires went on for three relentless days in the summer of 2021, scorching over 13,000 hectares of western Sardinia. Residents “saw their whole world go up in flames […]

read more...


The Race to Translate Animal Sounds Into Human Language

Via Wired, a look at how – with big cash prizes at stake and AI supercharging research—interspecies translation is closer than ever. But what, if anything, would animals want to tell us? In 2025 we will see AI and machine learning leveraged to make real progress in understanding animal communication, answering a question that has […]

read more...

Published Articles