Taking Some Wind From The Sails Of Peak Oil Doomsayers
[ Comments Off ]Posted on November 13, 2008 by admin in Clean & Green, Technology
Or is that taking some sales from the wind
It’s nice to know that while the big three beg for bailouts and utility executives try to raise alarm about the dangers of switching from coal, innovative thinking and a desire to make money are showing some tangible results in the clean tech movement. Apparently electric car innovator Fisker Automotive (Warning: melodramatic string music) is setting up shop – although only a couple hundred actual jobs – in Michigan. On the energy production front, even Texas is ramping it up; with its current growth in windpower generation, the state could be able to generate all of its energy from wind in the near future, with a surplus to put back into the grid. Maybe some of these survival-product pushers masked as loony prophets of oil doom will be put out of business.
Wait. So Africa IS A Country?
[ Comments Off ]Posted on November 13, 2008 by admin in Politics
Or Sarah Palin’s not retarded after all?
Don’t believe everything you read. Maybe not even the following information. “On the Internet”, as they say, “no-one knows you’re a dog“. Apparently all the hoopla about Sarah Palin thinking Africa was a country was the result of the media falling for an absurd parody of a think tank (The Harding Institute for Freedom and Democracy), a political expert (Martin Eisenstadt), and his blog. See this New York Times piece for the convoluted details.
Long Before Wireless, There Was Wire
[ 4 Comments ]Posted on November 13, 2008 by admin in Music
Wire the band
After my recent dissing of eighties music, I was talking with my walking musicological pop media reference library and friend Eric about whether or not there were any eighties bands that didn’t suck. We agreed on Wire, one of the least-acknowledged but most influential pop bands of the last 25 years. The clip at left is of their club hit “Ahead”. Early on (1977-79), Wire was kind of punk, but even then had more melodic tunes like The 15th
Are You A Psychopath?
[ 4 Comments ]Posted on November 12, 2008 by admin in Lifestyle & Culture
Maybe you should go into finance.
  Investment bankers have all the fun… |
No, all my rage has a perfectly rational foundation, thank you very much. For some reason, the recent economic crisis reminded me of the idea floating around back in 2004 that maybe corporate culture was breeding and encouraging actual psychopaths. Thanks to the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon, I keep running into articles that suggest that this is indeed the case. What else could explain the audacity of the inclusion of a $140 Billion windfall tax in the Treasury Department’s economic bailout package? Or the aberrant behavior of individuals in the finance industry described in this lengthy but well-written Portfolio.com piece? The election was a nice distraction, but is anyone out there still even slightly angry? If we turned the tables and went all American Psycho
*29 questions, and don’t fall for the checkbox trick at the end.
The Utility Of Futility
[ 1 Comment ]Posted on November 11, 2008 by admin in Editorial & Opinion
I hate computer games, but they’re great fluff content…
I don’t really enjoy computer games; they somehow only aggravate my ongoing sense of futility. Which might explain why the few that I am drawn to seem to have a high futility quotient. Like The Game, for instance. Perhaps more social commentary than game, you have to get used to the idea that sometimes diving into the abyss is the only answer. If you get past the “Global Warming” level, let me know. QWOP takes futility to a new level. You only control the calves and thighs of an Olympic runner, and have to run the hundred-meter. I found the most reward from creating Check Berry-like splits moves by just hitting the “W” key. And in a feeble metaphor for the workweek, try Run. An endless run to nowhere, the only real objective being to avoid the holes that lie in your path.