The world’s in a very strange place right now. On one hand, it feels like it might fall apart at any moment. Worldwide economic collapse, global warming, the always turbulent Middle East. On the other hand, everything seems possible. We’re starting to program DNA, we can engage in worldwide collaboration on any subject, and the U.S. has elected a smart President who believes in science. Wow. Maybe that’s why I ended up musing about alternative energy today. I was thinking about lightning. We’ve known for a long time that a single lightning strike could provide amazing amounts of electricity if we could only harness it. The main problem is that all the electricity is delivered at once. We could never charge a battery fast enough to store it. Meanwhile, hydrogen is a promising fuel source. You can get it from water and you get water as the exhaust when you burn it. The main problem with hydrogen is that you have to use so much energy to separate it from water via any of the known methods (electrolysis being one of them). Well then, wouldn’t it be possible to set up a system that uses a lightning strike to help convert a bunch of water into hydrogen, effectively using the gas as a very volatile quick-charge battery? You’d have to keep the hydrogen from exploding, of course. And there might be something about a lightning strike that makes it fundamentally unsuitable for the task. I’m much more passionate about art than I am about traditional science, and I have to confess that I have no desire to try and build a proof of concept. I did, however, find the idea intriguing enough to whip out the google-fu and see if anyone else had asked a similar question. Turns out, a lot of people had. Some of them are even trying to make a working prototype. Check out these links: (more…)
I’m in love with the Dark Fire guitar from Gibson. It auto tunes to any preset tuning in under a second. That alone is enough to push it to drool-worthy status. It’s also optimized for the world of digital recording. The price is a bit hefty, but I wonder if this signals a new era in music technology. Perhaps the last few die hards have finally let go of the mystique of analog. The economy may be on life support, but this is proof that there are still some folks out there creating some pretty cool stuff. If only we could just trade the bankers and auto execs for more of them.
Julian Beever knows how to give you vertigo while walking down the street. Check out his surreal chalk pavement drawings and see if you don’t agree. Believe it or not, these do not involve any modifications to the pavement beyond coloring it with chalk. Any sense of depth on the sidewalk itself comes from Julian’s own strange mind. I’ve always been fascinated with street artists. I’ve always seen permanence as being an important incentive for an artist to create. When I write a story or a song, I’m recording something I think is important, and even if I may never be able to quit my day job, that pseudo-immortality is enough to encourage me to continue to create in my spare time. But someone who makes a beautiful chalk drawing knows it’s going to get walked on and rained on and eventually ruined. He knows that, but he still does it. Sure Beever and others can catalog their work with a camera, but past snapshots, they have only memories of their art. It’s a very brave way to create. If you want a bit of insight into the process he goes through, check out the video of him doing his Aveeno Fountain of Youth drawing in New York:
Here’s something cool I just noticed on Chris Cornell’s site. You can hear the song on his site. The lyrics are written by one of his fans, Rory Dela Rosa. Now before everyone gets too jealous about how cool it must have been to write a song with one of rock’s most talented singer/songwriter’s, you should know something about Rory. In April, he lost his six year old daughter to cancer and then he got handed his own cancer death sentence a few months later. As much as I dig Chris’ stuff, I’d take life over collaboration in a heartbeat. Unfortunately, Rory doesn’t have the choice.
One of the coolest things about being an artist is that you get to record parts of you that will live on past your physical death. I’d say the belief I have in that is the closest thing I’ve ever had to a religion. It’s no small comfort to know that people will have your poetic best to remember you by. Hat’s off to Chris Cornell for taking the time and helping to make something beautiful out of such awful circumstances.
My generation played with Lego, and we’re currently in the driver’s seat of Web 2.0. I wonder what kind of revolution that the kids who get to play with Siftables will start.
p.s. I want some!
I thought this article was pretty hilarious. That’s right… Wall street CEOs completely fuck up the economy. Then, as they’re asking for tax payer bailout money, they do things like spend $87,000 on an area rug. And when the common folk get a bit upset they say, hey, wait a minute… we have to spend ridiculous amounts of money just to fit in.
What these guys don’t understand is how good they’ve still got it, even on their poverty level allowance of $500K/year. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, it’s time for a history lesson…
Another cause was the fact that Louis XV fought many wars, bringing France to the verge of bankruptcy, and Louis XVI supported the colonists during the American Revolution, exacerbating the precarious financial condition of the government
The inefficient and antiquated financial system was unable to manage the national debt, something which was both caused and exacerbated by the burden of a grossly inequitable system of taxation. Another cause was the continued conspicuous consumption of the noble class, especially the court of Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette at Versailles, despite the financial burden on the populace. High unemployment and high bread prices caused more money to be spent on food and less in other areas of the economy.
Sound familiar? That was the French Revolution. You can read all about it in the wikipedia article.
Remember what else happened during the French Revolution?
The common people didn’t cut the noble elite’s salaries, they introduced them to the guillotine.
In times like these, we should all try to be thankful for what we’ve got. And hey, if you’re a CEO on Wall Street and you still have your head, you’re doing a hell of a lot better than your predecessors.
Check out the following video and see if you get any feelings of deja vu…
Now, forget for a moment about the guy caressing his shotgun and the other guy claiming that the Democrats are the root of all evil in the world. Also, forget about the scene where the latter suggests that Republicans are the only ones who allow him to say what he wants to say without fear of going to jail (perhaps it’s because he’s a white male traditional family values sort of guy that he’s never had to worry about saying anything too controversial).
Take that ridiculousness out and what are you left with? You got it. President Obama’s election winning message. It’s as if all the Rush Limbaugh fans (who could never hope to have an original thought) got together and did an awkward tribute video for Barack Obama. Gotta make sure you include lots of regular working class people. Throw out the fear mongering of the Bush years and talk about change and hope. Talk about how the little guy’s getting screwed. Talk about freedom to do what you want to do and the government listening to the middle class for a change.
So that’s how they’re going to rebuild their party? By parroting the stuff that worked for the Democrats and hoping everyone will forget the last eight years? It’s like a guy who beats his wife and then tells her, “Baby, ain’t no one gonna love you like I do.” Ha! All the while, images of Ronald Reagan float from scene to scene as if he was their Messiah and they’re waiting for him to rise again! Somehow, I just can’t buy that the guy who brought us the Iran contra scandal would be able to start turning water into wine.
In case you guys haven’t noticed, YOUR FEARLESS LEADER got us into this cluster fuck of an economy. How about holding off rebuilding the party that made it possible for such a complete dumb ass to lead the free world into disaster for just a few months and pitch in. You guys love talking about patriotism, right? Well wouldn’t that involve lending a hand to the guy trying to fix things? He’s not going to get everything right, but he’s trying, damn it, and you’re being a bunch of twits about it because he’s trying something different. Do you really think he wants to fail? Of course not. That means you share the same goal. Because the Democrats are in charge now and you’re not, they’re going to try a different strategy. You’re just going to have to deal with that. Now it’s your chance to be a sober voice of opposition, to point out specific flaws in any of their proposals and get them fixed. That, or you can keep pouting and let them claim all the credit for any progress that is made.
