David Safier

Water desalination doesn’t produce salt?

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by David Safier In an attempt to cure some of my ignorance, I did a google search on water desalination (desalinization, desalinisation) and found an Economist article from June, 2008. It has lots of excellent technical information. The most important fact in terms of answering my question — Why isn't desalination coupled with the production … Read more

Where do college athlete’s scholarships come from?

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by David Safier Here's another question born of ignorance. When college athletes are given scholarships, where does the money come from? A column by John Harris in the Pittsburgh Trib-Review questions the free education given to college athletes. Harris comments: A basketball player attending Pitt is eligible for an education worth more than $100,000. Except … Read more

A query born of complete ignorance

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by David Safier This could be viewed as a cry for help — scientific help, that is. Advertisers as well as health food advocates the world round sing the praises of sea salt over . . . not sea salt,wherever that comes from. One of the problems with desalination of sea water (also called "desalinization" … Read more

Wall Street, schools and merit pay

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by David Safier A Seattle Times columnist has an interesting thought piece on teacher merit pay, comparing it to bonuses paid to Wall Street execs. If pay for performance is such a good idea, how did Wall Street's bonus babies get us into such a mess? It's a good question, and part of a larger … Read more

G.I. hearts G.N.

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by David Safier Where does the Goldwater Institute go for inspiration on the issues of taxation and the cutting government spending? Grover Norquist. That's right. The same Grover Norquist who gave us this bit of wisdom: My goal is to cut government in half in twenty-five years, to get it down to the size where … Read more