In his new book Resilience, Andrew Zolli — the director of the global innovation network PopTech — uses the electrical grid as an example of a system that lacks just that. And in an increasingly interconnected world — financially, ecologically, politically — one in which small errors in one place can cascade into broader system failures, the ability to adapt, accommodate and bounce back is only going to become more important. From climate change to overpopulation to recessions, the threats facing the world are as unpredictable as they are varied — which is why we need to craft systems that are nimble, that can bend under stress rather than break. “If we cannot control the volatile tides of change, we can learn to build better boats,” writes Zolli. “We can design — and redesign — organizations, institutions, and systems to better absorb disruption, operate under a wilder variety of conditions, and shift more fluidly from one circumstance to the next.”         The Economist

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Those who vehemently argue for either a total reliance on the private sector or the opposite regarding the public sector consistently overlook the inherent complexity of most innovations, to wit: fracking

Whatever you think about fracking itself, especially its environmental consequences, it turns out that it is a typical and uniquely American outcome of both private and public investment. Here’s a good summary that appears in The Economist:

Federal money helped finance development of the “fracking” technology that makes shale gas accessible, just as it paid for the internet’s precursors. However its use was commercialised by a Texas wildcatter called George Mitchell, the sort of risk-taker America has in abundance. In Europe shale gas has been locked in by green rules and limited property rights. In America shale has already lowered consumers’ energy bills and, by displacing coal, carbon emissions. In future, it will give a spur to the domestic manufacture of anything needing large amounts of energy.           The Economist

We live in the Age of Prescription, when anything and everything has a pill assigned to it. If you’re not swallowing something, doctors are surprised.

Did you know the average American fills 12 prescriptions a year? Our medicine cabinets are stocked with small brown bottles. From heartburn to heartache, there is a pill you can pop.

And that’s how the drug companies want it.       Mitch Albom in Freep

Prescriptions are just fine, when they are truly needed and monitored. But too often Americans end up on a cocktail of multiple medicines, whose combo creates unpredictable side effects. Doctors, pharmacists and patients have to get smarter about these drugs.

Tonight the Village Council amended the original Planned Unit Development (PUD) site plan, issued in May 2000, clearing the way for Glenn and Myrna House to finish the Capa Bran housing project near the corner of South Bayshore and Fourth Street in west Elk Rapids.

The project was halted years ago when a controversy arose over the nature of the soil at Capa Bran as well as The Elk Rapids Preserve (now The Cottages) nearby. The Army Corps of Engineers assumed control of the project and has finally issued the proper permit for construction to continue, albeit with some mandated wetlands requirements. Planned are 10 condos on the property.

For some background on this project, review this 2006 article from the Record-Eagle:

Housing project near Elk Rapids to move forward

And it has, six years later. The House family has been through a lot of grief and had to pay remarkable sums of money to make this project happen.