Glass Roads to Ho-Hum-ization June 7, 2011March 24, 2017 GLASS ROADS Yesterday I suggested we needed to spend more on infrastructure and less on designer shoes. An example of a task ready for prime time: weatherizing 100 million homes and office buildings to make them 25% more energy efficient. It’s low-hanging fruit with a rapid payback (which equals a high internal rate of return) and could produce a great many jobs over the next few years, to boot, as this work is done. An example of a task that may or may not ever be ready for prime time – but that is clearly past the “dream” stage – is repaving our roads with solar panels. I’ve mentioned this before, but it’s way too astonishing a solution not to repost. Watch the brief video. And visit yert.com for more. My two biggest questions: what happens to your tire traction when glass roads get wet? How low can the price be driven? But, boy, would this solve our energy problem if, over the next 5 years, we were able to come up with a workable design; and then, over the subsequent 20, repave much of America with power generating roadways. TOMORROW ON PBS “Out In America” airs tomorrow (June 8) at 8pm on most PBS stations (check local listings). I’ve only seen the 5-minute trailer, but it seems an appropriate documentary to be airing this Gay Pride month. The more Americans get to know their LGBT neighbors, co-workers, family members and the like, the faster intolerance and inequality melt away. (Who could fail to like Ellen DeGeneres?) In a book I wrote long ago, I hoped for the “ho-hum-ization” of same-sex issues. Like: who cares whom you hold hands with, so long as you hold hands. Two examples of the main-streaming of this once taboo topic are: THE AARP’S LGBT PAGE Click here. THE ARMY’S LGBT PAGE Click here. It’s a great testament to our country that the long-term trend, for all its occasional setbacks, is toward fairness and equality. You no longer have to be a white male property-owner to vote. Or straight to be embraced – at least by many – as a valuable thread in the American tapestry.