The following was sent to me by email. Written by Regina Brett it is living proof that Stoicism isn't a arcane and obscure ancient philosophy, but is rather available to anyone who questions what is good in life. Regina may not identify herself as a Stoic, but there is little doubt that this is the living heart of philosophy at work.

Most people would take an immediate dislike to the idea of raising taxes. The Government taking more money from hard working New Zealanders. But before you turn off let me suggest a tax that might just save us a bunch of money. Raising the tax on petrol by 50%.

Technology can blind us to simple solutions. One example is the drive toward electrical power. Electrical power is indeed convenient; you can easily and efficiently translate electrical energy into all kinds of other energy. The downside is that generating electricity from solar energy at best is 30% efficient. In this article I examine how we could skip conversion of solar to electrical energy for most of our household applications.

A few weeks ago I posted a mashup of two videos I really liked. I had posted online saying that I would happily take it down if there were any concerns. I gave full attribution and made no attempt to hide the source. However, a few days ago I received two DMCA notices within thirty minutes. At 6am local time. As a result my YouTube account was terminated.