Actually, eliminating grade levels is an idea with some pedigree. One-room country schools may have had grades but they didn't matter much. Older kids helped younger kids and everybody learned stuff. There's also a chain of schools that was started back in the 60's, can't remember the name off hand, it was something like "Sutter Valley School". Anyway, their belief is that play is the natural learning state for children. You don't need a curriculum, you just need minimal supervision and resources to answer questions and do projects. Children will naturally do what they need to learn how to get along in the world, including the 3 R's, without any prodding from adults.

There's a really interesting lecture on this by a psychologist, Peter Gray, whose own son attended such a school: The Biology of Education - How Children Learn Through Self-Directed Play and Exploration

I would apply the old open-source aphorism to this as well. It may take time for the wheels of justice to move in your favor, but at least there is still a reasonable expectation of movement in that area.

Hmm... sorry, this has been happening for many years already... back to the 80s... This is nothing new.

This seems more like basic-level stuff... learning from your mistakes. That strikes me as the sort of thing that would be "hardwired" in everything from nematodes to primates. Why is this news?

You might find this of interest: "Concrete on Mars - Brandon Larson - 15th Annual International Mars Society Convention"

If only I had mod points...

In the long run it doesn't really matter. Renewables will win because... PHYSICS. Forget the fact that fossil fuels are finite, they are simply doomed by the plummeting price of solar and the ever-increasing price of petroleum. A glance at the long-term curve will be enough to settle the matter.

Depends on how you slice it.

I've never given him a dime, though I did meet him once, briefly, back in the 80s.

Photo-Voltaic solar power.

What really needs to happen is to remove all gov't subsidies across the board. Indeed this is what alt-energy maven Avory Lovins has been preaching for years, because he knows that without subsidies the fossil fuels can't compete with renewables. We are already near the tipping point where even the massive fossil fuel subsidies won't be enough to prop them up. The switch to renewables is just a matter of time. The only unknowns are how long it will take and how painful it will be.

My phone does not have a GPS receiver, it does location tracking by the cell network itself.

Just posting to claim the parent as my own. I didn't intend to post anonymously, but my login had expired... Stuff happens.

What you need is more precipitation. Colder winters might help that happen, but they are not what you need, per se. What you need is lower global temperatures, especially in ocean waters, so that your regional climate is no longer fucked up by climate change.

I understand that the water-harvesting scenario in my previous post depends on rainfall -- of which California has seen practically none for several years in a row. But that's no reason not to start investing in the kind of infrastructure that could help alleviate these concerns over the long term.

Fixing climate change is going to take some time and effort, on several fronts simultaneously. We all have a role to play.

What AZ, CA, and the whole region need is to slow down the rainwater and help it to soak into the soil. To do this, you need earthworks such as swales and dams (specifically gabions for the arid southwestern desert areas). Those arroyos and canyons in Arizona may be great ATV playgrounds for 11 months of the year, but for a few days they become raging torrents. And as it stands now, ALL of that water simply runs off down to the ocean. But it wouldn't be hard to save that water, and use it to re-green the entire region. (Here's a quick 1-min video which explains the basic process.)