chuck kottke

flap, flap, flap! So you like wings? I thought Californians were into nuts and avocados! :P Munching on some home-made whole wheat bread. mmmmm!

Like some 'introduction to classical music' class, only it's rock and roll?! I suppose music fits the times, perhaps that is why some eras are more memorable than others? But when one thinks of it, lyrics are devices for conveying feelings and emotional ideas of sorts; taken out of the context and feeling of the music they're in, and the lyrics look odd indeed! But put the pieces together, and things begin to harmonize. I wonder if we compare a before and after view of them, what that might reveal? Poetry is one thing, music is another.

Something more on the i MiEV - Clocks-like music accompanying the video: [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=idYS-JTyYCk&feature=player_embedded]YouTube - 2010 Mistubishi iMiev Electric Car Performance Test:cool:[/ame]

Beautiful World, AKA Don't Panic Tesla or Edison?

> Fried Okra?! Hm, *wonders what that's like:thinking::inquisitive:*.. ok. I do like the black eyed peas, actually I am familiar with quite a number of those foods. And I've eaten grits - I never quite knew why they're such a staple down south though?.. Hey, where's the collards?!:laugh3: Greens! > Wobbly, that's the world we live in! ;)

Pago Pago, American Samoa

:rolleyes::laugh3: Which planet are you on Rudy? Beginning with Ceres. ( for the Cerious)

Newport News

This could be interesting! Name the planet or planetoid in alphabetical order, or numerical sequence for the unnamed ones, and describe some interesting fact or feature about it. :sunny:

Lisbon, Portugal

Maybe the planet game? Has anyone though of that yet?:idea2:

Profits are good, I like profits!:) But when things get too daffy :greedy:, a lot of other things slide off the deep end. It can be fun, I agree - I just think balance is what's missing - like any diet, proportion & balance are key. That and each of us has a unique role to play in the universe; we derive strength through diversity. I actually like beets on occasion - good in cold soups, once in a while pickled. Just had too many of them as a kid.:laugh3: I suppose it's part of Southern cuisine? I'm not so familiar with that..

I've been trying to become more of a rounder or sorts, to get a better feel on common sense (and as Voltaire said, common sense is not that common). I delve pretty deeply at times into green engineering, but also do a lot of grazing; thanks for the accolades! One thing I wanted to mention was that thermal solar energy is actually quite a bit more efficient than solar cell panels, and good energy portfolios should include a balance of solar, wind, geothermal, tidal power, hydroelectric, and biomass. (dry basics, you're probably already aware of..) Winters are the challenging thing, when solar is almost nil, winds can greatly diminish depending on siting; and that leaves biomass, tides, geothermal, stored power, and imports to take up the slack. But that's where efficiency comes into play, as you mention with the thick layers of damming materials to improve efficiency in homes being renovated - this is to me the 80% of the answer, and when demand is greatly reduced, renewable energy can fill the bill for the remaining 20% as supply. Yes, I see all the advances in Germany, you are way ahead of us in regards to solar power for hot water and electricity in residential, school, and business applications! We're really just starting to do that - our local high school for example has installed some photovoltaic panels on it's roof. Its gradually coming into being, even with the budget shortfalls and corporate interest detractors (king coal doesn't want competition), solar has been gaining strong momentum, and wind energy is already becoming a norm here. Same issues though - some people don't like seeing the wind turbines because they cast moving shadows, or just stand out when they look at a hillside or lake shore. I counter by saying it's either wind towers or smoke stacks, mercury, fallout, waste, and mountain top removal. In terms of renovation for efficiency, that's become more and more the norm as well, but lags behind I think because it doesn't have a big donor in our government. I've done it quite effectively for a family's rental house; we topped out the blower door test and may have set a record for a residential remodeling job in terms of overall energy efficiency and building envelope tightness.

si, tres. :)

I think the term is separate by age. Montessori methods may work better, I agree - children advancing in areas at a rate governed by their abilities and advances, not arbitrarily being moved ahead grade by grade. Perhaps this simply was an attempt to separate children into groups of similar abilities, however a poor fit it was. Well, the Germans had & have excellent schools and scholars let us not forget! This was done under the Weimar Republic, a democracy once again. The reasons for the NAZIS taking over were several, not because of the trust people put in authority, but because of the loss of trust people had for their government which had failed them economically (as well as had the U.S. government failed in preventing bad investments in German business to occur in the stock markets, and demand an impossible burden of war reparations for WWI.) Then, when all else failed, German citizens in that day and age were searching for an answer, a messiah if you will. And they discovered this great orator, who had the charisma and cunning to mislead people into supporting Fascism under a dictator. The marketing was superb, the party became a religion, borrowing iconography from a panoply of religious, ancient cultural, and mythological symbols. And it had the blessing of Rome as well - the official catholic church supported it (though I wish to add that this was partly out of fear of communist takeover). What I think you're forgetting is that in desperate times when all seems to have failed, people can be vulnerable to strong men offering solutions. It is not the trust in authority which leads us into war, it is the trust in those presenting the news, blind faith in a corporate for-profit media under the control of a limited few, and a government serving corporate interests and their agendas over the will of the people.

>Nice! That works out to the equivalent of 48 MPG U.S., or 4.9 L per 100 km. What is possible is truly amazing, even with the vehicles available today. What are the odds of convincing your fellow United Kingdom citizens to do the same?

>Well, both Chris and Bono thought "Clocks" was a great title, although it was just my brain all fuzzed up at the moment, my mind was trying to say wrist watch, but all I could utter was Clocks! And just what would be better, O infinite fortune teller? :laugh3: Isn't art a matter of simplifying and centering attention, keep the title short and sweet? Maybe the old way is better - naming songs by the word or phrase used as the central theme, repeated the most throughout the song?

> Working droles or working trolls? :laugh3: Jay, I used to be a 10-hour a day, 6 days a week working elf, making those lovely rocking horses and water skis you kids like! But my employer wasn't a very good Santa, since we were expected to work in an unhealthy work environment for a pittance, with minimal benefits, and got snarled at no matter how hard we worked, or how good the workmanship was. Then the plant closed and they moved it somewhere they could exploit workers even more effectively! The problem is that after an exhausting day & an endless week, about all the energy you've got left to do is sit and relax, hoping something pleasing is on TV to distract you from a miserable life. A lobster pail where there's no need to grab someone and pull them back in - all lobsters in the pail are equally hobbled. I suppose if it got the point where no one could afford fuel of food, then what's the point of trying to make it work - might as well revolt! Perhaps that is the case, and perhaps we will see that happen. But consider also the protests in Madison - citizens are no longer asleep as they once were. Everyone has limits, and when those limits are breached, a torrent of humanity is unleashed upon those rigging the system. I can't ignore the individuals, as there are many who in concert are corrupting the system. And advertisement works, money buys our elections. What we teach our children is how the system is supposed to work. The problem is that the system needs fixing; it no longer functions to the benefit of average Americans, and much to the disaffection of citizens in other parts of the globe. Our U.S. Government, having been hobbled by corporate interests who seat themselves at the heads of agencies and cabinet posts who hire retiring politicians for lobbying jobs & who have amassed more wealth than most nations, that government is no longer working primarily in our best interests, but instead for a minority of plutocrats. If we eliminate the government, then what's left is basically huge multinational corporations, and given their talent for deception, intimidation, and amassing power sans for what little is done to curb their appetite, I can only shudder at the though of a world stripped bare of any government protections for humanity. It is not government that is the problem, it is government that serves mainly those with the power and money to control it, and throws a crumb to those who make it all possible. Either we reform it, or form a new one, but it is in my mind the essential referee and promoter of humanity's well being. Can it solve all problems? Certainly it cannot, but it can serve to promote solutions that work, and properly fund things for the common good of all. It can provide a fair and honest justice system if we demand that it do so, and promote the general well being of our citizens. It does a pretty good job when it is designed properly and checked routinely, accountable to any and all, and when necessary reinvented. Government is the body through which our collective ideals are upheld and through which our knowledge & actions are utilized to achieve common goals. Certainly there are answers outside the realm of government, whether that be from individuals, charities, cooperatives, worker-owned companies, religious organizations, societies, or other forms of social engagement. However, for the protection of those things we all hold in common, honest government has an important role to play.

> Thanks for the words of praise, but the answer is... blowing in the wind!:laugh3: Gautama, it's really simple like wrestling an alligator. I've pondered coming up with super-efficient solar cells made from common crustal elements, super-efficient lights, all the things everyone else is striving to do. And then I realized, we just use it up as fast as we make it!:laugh3: Sure, there's fusion reactors, and they're getting there, and there's geothermal - definitely that's another area to grow. But the simple solution is energy efficiency. Which doesn't mean freezing in winter or going without lighting (the detractor arguments we hear all the time here!), but there is this enormous potential for efficiency improvements in all things using electricity. Street lights using high-efficiency lamps aimed correctly would help. More & better use of daylight in buildings. Really making homes and businesses super-insulated and tight, then using air exchangers to maintain fresh air in the building. Since heating and cooling equipment is a big part of the electric load, there's a lot to save in that area. Refrigerators, freezers, business coolers - these can be vastly improved as well. The thing that is required is for people to make adjustments. One might need to make a bigger space in the kitchen for a super-insulated refrigerator, or go to the bottom of the fridge to use the freezer. Adding skylights, sun-tubes, and clerestory windows for better lighting during the day, and then electric lights that automatically dim when the sun comes in. Use of yard lighting that is on a switch or controllable timer rather than having it automatically turn on all night long. It's really not that hard to do, but takes a little work and good planning. Making it a market incentive I think is good, as long as the working class & those on fixed incomes have access to the means to bring their energy efficiency up. I have to chuckle a bit, since we were almost there in the 70's, making this transition. But then oil prices dropped, the economy rebounded, coal was plentiful and stack emissions for particulates and sulfur & nitrous oxides began to get better, so then it was back to the old saw of extract, grow, and consume. More people, more streets and lights, more factories, more of everything - we've really ramped up consumption, and so now it's a matter of intelligent choices in efficiency. Then there's less pressure to put up so many turbines - maybe some views can be saved. What about siting more of the turbines in the ocean? Work on getting more geothermal in Germany perhaps (?) - there must be some spots where the mantle is closer to the surface, I would imagine. But really, we simply have enough without nuclear - it's a matter of moving in the right direction - it's a bit of a challenge, since it requires home and office construction & remodeling, replacing old appliances, etc. - a little inconvenience but better for the environment and safety of citizens.

> Sure! But at the price of bottled water, I wonder if that's much improvement!:laugh3: As per the art of slowing down to a stop with no braking, that's quite an accomplishment. Just don't forget that you can use brakes though! I got pretty good at that about a month ago when my car brakes sprung a leak - managed to nurse the vehicle home, it really made me aware of how much inertia autos have. Here's an Electric car from Mitsubishi - if you want to give it a gander: [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZjY5pOhChc]YouTube - DRIVE- Mitsubishi i-MiEV[/ame] It looks pretty cool, and I really like the selective driving modes on the shifter. Pretty good ranges: 55 miles for sports mode, 85-100 miles if driven gently with little use of accessories, wonder if filling stations would let a person charge-up?

Linking government and slavery is a non sequitur. It isn't the government that enslaves us, but ensures the blessings of liberty if we keep it honest and working for we, the people. Less government? Sure, cut the defense department budget down to that of any other sensible nation's expenditures on defense. But on the whole, I would rather fix it than scrap it all. Stopping the buying and selling of U.S. elections will be the toughest challenge for us all, and we must press for change if we want our countries and world to be a better place. How bad has it gotten? Well, both Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas, two leading U.S. Supreme Court Justices, have been "featured guests" at secretive political strategy sessions sponsored by Charles and David Koch. The Koch brothers are pretty aggressive political donors whose company, Koch Industries, was a major beneficiary of the Citizens United decision. In my opinion, Citizens United vs. the Federal Election Commission was a case used by the conservative justices to strike down decades of campaign finance law and thus end sensible limits on spending by corporations and unions. Striking down the law has led to an avalanche of money flowing into the political process visa vi political ads, and Koch's money was behind the campaign of Wisconsin Governor Walker, who has pressed hard to cripple worker's rights. If we want to end slavery of working class citizens, we need honest government on our side! Otherwise, the wealthy plutocrats will usurp more and more of our rights, and their political cronies will destroy any economic equity we have left. The danger to the world right now is the concentration of wealth in the very very top, and with that an erosion of the underpinnings of democracy.

A remix of Clocks?! I hope the hands still go forwards on it, or else it would be a musical time machine!;) Did you change the gears in it, does it keep better time on other planets? Anyhow, just joshing ya, glad you'll be here for the fun of it. :cool::sunny: (and I'd be most happy to give it a listen)

Welcome to the board Sam! I like Speed of Sound, and High Speed too - they're both pretty cool tunes! Hope to see your posts too - glad you will be active here.:hat:

Fairbanks, Alaska