Voters in Cary, North Carolina became the first in the state to use instant runoff voting, and the vote seems to have gone very smoothly.

“I thought it was really positive,” said Alex Funk, a retired engineer who biked to the Herbert C. Young Community Center to vote. “I mean, why do this all twice?”

Next month voters in Hendersonville, North Carolins will use the system in their City Council election.

On the negative side,

On October 14, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed AB 1294, the bill to let all cities and counties use Instant-Runoff Voting for elections for their own officers. His veto message says, “This represents a drastic change to the way we vote. I am concerned that we don’t yet know enough about how voters will react to such a dramatic change. Charter cities and counties already have the right to hold ranked voting elections, yet only one city has done so thus far.”  Several cities in California have already voted to use Instant-Runoff Voting, but state law prevents them from implementing their choice because they aren’t charter cities.

NEw IRS data shows that the wealthiest 1% of Americans earned 21.2% of all income in 2005, up sharply from 19% in 2004, and surpassing the previous high of 20.8% set in 2000, at the peak of the previous bull market in stocks.  The bottom 50% earned 12.8% of all income, down from 13.4% in 2004 and a bit less than their 13% share in 2000.

The 2005 data follows a steady trend toward greater income inequality that began in the 1970s and accelerated in the 1980s and 90s.  The richest one percent now earn nearly the same share as they did back in the 1930s.

 And while total income has risen since 2001, median household income has declined.  This has been a rich man’s recovery.

“I’m sick and tired of only hearing the bad news. Why can’t someone talk about the good news?” Captain Edward Smith, Titanic, 11:40 PM, April 12, 1912.

The National Research Council has released a report that claims increasing corn ethanol production will stress the nation’s fresh water supplies.

Growing lots more corn using current farm practices will come at a huge water cost to Nebraska and other states where the fuel is made. Industrial farming methods would deplete underground water supplies and result in a flow of agricultural chemicals and eroded soil into rivers, lakes and oceans, according to the report, “Water Implications of Biofuels Production in the United States.”

“It is equivalent to ‘mining’ the water resource, and the loss of the resource is essentially irreversible,” the report said.

In the first step toward the Green Party’s drive to get on all 51 ballots next year, the Arkansas Green Party submitted 17,197 signatures to the state board of elections yesterday.  If they have 10,000 valid signatures, they will be able to nominate candidates for any partisan office in the state.

In Toledo, Ohio’s city council elections on September 11, 2007, Green Party candidate outpolled the incumbant Republican candidate in a three way race.  The results in the 6th district were: Democrat Lindsey Webb 1,403; Green David Ball 615; Republican Joe Birmingham 462. Webb and Ball will compete in a runoff on November 6. 

The following chart shows world oil production as well as production of other oil liquids. All appear to have peaked.

Chart is reproduced from The Oil Drum.

The Northwest Passage across Northern Canada is completely ice free for the first time ever, as Arctic ice cover dropped to around 3 million square miles this summer, a million square miles less than the previous recorded low.  Arctic ice cover has dropped by an average of around 100,000 square kilometers a year over the last ten years, so this year’s million square kilometer drop is itself a remarkable occurance.

She was definitely one of my favorite authors. I haven’t felt this sad since I was in junior high and E. B. White died.

According to the National Snow and Ice Data Center, Arctic sea ice hit a record low of 4.42 million square kilometers on September 4. The lowest absolute minimum previously recorded was 5.32 million square kilometers on September 20–21, 2005. With several more weeks to go, the absolute minimum this year will likely be even lower.